NCJ Number
91819
Date Published
1981
Length
30 pages
Annotation
This report provides an overview of stresses experienced by police officers, identifies manifestations of inadequate stress management, and describes the Dallas Police Department's responses to the problem through physical fitness, counseling, biofeedback, and educational programs.
Abstract
The physically fatiguing nature of law enforcement alone renders the police officer particularly vulnerable to additional stressors. These include conflicting perceptions of the officer's role, peer group pressures, continual confrontation with ambiguous situations that require personal judgement, lack of administrative support for discretionary judgement, and cases being thrown out of court on technicalities or plea bargaining. Internalized stress can evidence itself in psychosomatic or emotional problems, while external stress can be manifested in impulsive behavior, overreaction to citizens and officers, and displaced aggression. Specific problems generated by stress include difficulties in submitting to authority, insecurity and immaturity, poor marital relations, and the supercop syndrome. Moreover, officers handling extra jobs to meet financial obligations and older individuals transitioning from the old to the new line of policing are especially vulnerable to stress. Personal problems involving sexual relations, children, infidelity, jealousy, and drug and alcohol abuse are common. An experimental physical fitness program in the Dallas Police Department showed that physical training improved job attitudes and self-image as well as performance. Officers and dependents can enter the Department's counseling program in three ways: referral from a Behavioral Case Investigation of an officer who has received a sustained complaint, supervisory referral, and self-referral, the most common method. Since 1974, the counseling program has treated over 1,500 offices and places no limits on the number of sessions provided. The Department also uses biofeedback training and conducts educational programs on stress for new recruits, their spouses, supervisors, and field officers. The paper includes seven references.