NCJ Number
123511
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 17 Issue: 4 Dated: (April 1990) Pages: 18-21
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Job-related stress can affect not only the health and performance of individual police officers but also the morale of the entire organization.
Abstract
Police stressors include responsibility for other people's lives; working with people who hate the police, criminals, and people in crisis; handling responsibility and authority; and boredom. Accidental stressors come in the form of difficult assignments, seeing children killed or injured, involvement in a shooting incident, and the wounding or death of a fellow police officer. Another stress factor in some police organizations is role conflict. Further, there is sometimes conflict among the three basic police functions: law enforcement, keeping the peace, and service provision. Symptoms of psychological stress encompass personality changes, changes in appearance, and changes in work patterns. Physical shock can manifest itself in the form of nausea, tremors, laughing, or crying. Supervisors should be trained to recognize stress-related disorders. Two approaches to stress reduction are a physical fitness program and individual appraisal of priorities and goals.