Any topic of your choosing from the study of law enforcement - Research Paper Example

Module Challenges Police Officers Face When Off Duty Police officers are the law enforcers and they have the responsibility of maintaining decorum in the society. They have to protect the citizens and residents of an area from harm, exploitation and destruction of their property. As such, their scope of work is huge, which gives them a hard task. Consequentially, there are some challenges and setbacks police officers face when they are off work. To begin with, gangs and unscrupulous people target police officers. Police are known to protect innocent citizens from criminal activity. As such, they often apprehend criminals who are a menace to innocent citizens (Goldstein 12). This sparks hatred between the criminal gangs and police officers. In this situation, criminal gangs decree that police officers will be vulnerable when they are off work. This is partially owing to the protection from other officers while at work. Similarly, police officers are vulnerable when they are off work since they are not armed (Stering 33). This makes them an easy target. A number of cases have been reports where police officers are attacked at their place of residence. This is a challenge they face owing to their involvement in law enforcement. They are targeted since they limit the activities of criminal gangs. Police officers are considered one of the most stressed government officers. The stress levels in police officers increase owing to the indulgence in their work. They are required to work for long hours since they have to protect the nation throughout day and night (Forbes, 54). This leads to limited hours of sleep. This affects their lives, even when they are off duty. For example, their sleeping pattern is frequently distracted owing to the scope of their work. At times, the police officers are required to report on duty at night. As such, they often feel fatigued and tired. This could affect their family life. In most cases, police officers have families, which need their support and care. Consequentially, with such working conditions, the family support and care is jeopardized. The families have to persevere with such conditions, as it is almost impossible to rectify such a situation. In bizarre instances, it leads to neglect of the family since they do not have ample time with the family. The family could feel neglected since the police officer, who has a family is hardly present for the family. This will increase the stress levels of the police officers as they could have a guilty conscience. Police officers will often have stress concerning their job. As such, they would like to relieve their stress with the easiest possible means. Apparently, controlling stress to manageable levels is an indulging activity that needs time and dedication (Stering 19). For example, visiting a therapist will consume time and finances. As such, they revert to using alcohol and drugs. This behavior starts as a genuine solution to an incumbent problem. However, it exceeds to become a problem in itself. When the officers are drunk or high on drugs, they will have ease as they have solved some of their problems. Unfortunately, they get used to the behavior of using drugs and abusing alcohol most of the times they are stressed. This leads to addiction. This further deteriorates the situation as they depend on alcohols and drugs in solving and relieving their stress. As a fact, solving such a situation will require intervention from concerned parties. Bizarrely, some of the concerned parties do not have the time to reflect on the problems of the police officers (Raymond, 41). As such, they will continue with such behaviors. This ruins their life especially when they are off duty. For example, they will have to look for additional finances to sustain their alcohol and drug consumption. This will lead to uncouth behavior including corruption. Police officers are often dispatched to places marred with chaos, war and fighting between members of a society (Goldstein 23). At times, this is not a welcoming scene. Police officers are exposed to all manner of destruction, which includes inhumane killings. Experiencing such a scene could be detrimental to the life of a police officer especially when they are off duty. As a fact, the human mind is apt in recalling scary images. Therefore, the police officers will recall the images in rowdy places where people are hurt and killed. This affects their sleeping patterns as they are affected with insomnia (Ross 17). Officers who have experienced such incidences will find it hard to sleep, as the images keep haunting. In some instances, the police officers will have nightmares at night while asleep. With such incidences, they will be fatigued. This reduces the productivity of law enforcers when they are off duty. Consequentially, rectifying such a situation is not easy. The officers will have to go through multiple counseling to eradicate such a situation. This could be time consuming and expensive. There are many times when police officers have to make decisions in a split second. These are situations which are life threatening, yet they still have to make decisions. They are used to making such life threatening decisions in a short time. Since they are adept in making such decisions, they are accustomed. As such, they are likely to make life-threatening decisions in a short time when they are off duty (Forbes, 14). As a fact, when in the community, law enforcers will still make swift decisions. This could affect their family and social life. For example, in the family and social life, there is a need to gather information before making decisions. However, making a random and rapid decision could have adverse effects on the people close to the officer. Similarly, police officers are at times blamed when a situation is not controlled (Ross 23). For example, law enforcers are needed to control hostage situations when people are attacked. However, in some instances, people are killed. The officers are to blame when such occurs in the area of jurisdiction. Some police officers do not take this lightly as they will be affected for a better part of their life. The officers have to live with a guilty conscience, especially when they feel they could have taken an initiative to control the situation. This will affect their overall, performance at work, home and when given any other responsibility (Raymond 37). In fact, their concentration will be obstructed. In conclusion, police officers face a number of challenges especially when they are at work. Consequentially, this affects their whole life, even when they are off duty. Some of the effects need well-built measures to control the situation. However, this is not possible since they have limited time for such. Works Cited Forbes, A. S. Public Safety and Law Enforcement. New York. Infobase Publishing. 2010. Print. Goldstein Mark L. Homeland Security: the Federal Protective Service Faces Several Challenges That Raise Concerns about Protection of Federal Facilities: Congressional Testimony. New York. DIANE Publishing. 2009. Print. Raymond Barbara Police Personnel Challenges After September 11: Anticipating Expanded Duties and a Changing Labor Pool. New York. RAND Corporation. 2005. Print. Ross Jeffrey. Policing Issues: Challenges & Controversies. New York. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. 2011. Print. Stering Robert. Police Officer's Handbook: An Introductory Guide. London. Jones & Bartlett Learning. 2004. Print. Read More