NCJ Number
97188
Date Published
1983
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This film considers the nature of and means of dealing with the stress experienced by police officers who have suffered severe injury or killed in self-defense while on duty.
Abstract
Incidents which precipitated such stress in particular officers in the Miami and Hialeah, Fla., police departments are reenacted. Interviews with the involved officers and psychologists with the Miami department indicate the symptoms of 'postshooting trauma:' loss of interest in social interaction and sexual contact, loss of appetite, nightmares, heavy drinking, and contemplation of suicide. The film contrasts the way in which officers in the Hialeah department, which has no professional stress management program, have coped with stress compared with the officers in the Miami department, which has a stress management program operated by two psychologists. The Miami program provides individual counseling for officers undergoing stress and stress management training for all officers. Eighty percent of the Nation's police departments are indicated to have no organized stress management program, even though the police psychologists interviewed in the film advise that such programs can help prevent severe psychological and physical deterioration from occupational stress. Suicide is noted to be a particular problem among police officers. A discussion guide accompanies the film.