Stress as Faced by the Police - Report Example

Stress – as faced by the Police Police job is highly pressurized and challenging. They have to be alert and on their guard every second of their lives. They are required to be present in every scene of crime. They have to constantly face all the negative situations in their lives. They sometimes spend sleepless nights in order to protect the citizens from fugitives. This kind of highly pressurized job leads to stress and related diseases. But, stress can be both stimulating and distressing. A new police officer experiences eustress when going on patrol for the first time. (Stress and Police Personnel, pg 1); whereas if an officer is assigned to a high crime area then he feels distressed. Hence, stress, whether in its positive form or negative form is a daily routine of an officers life. Generally a police officer gets adapted to stress and thinks of it as a regular form of his life. But, it is also seen that high level of negative stress paves the way for a number of suicide cases. Stress also shows the path to corruption. Police misconduct and corruption are violations of rules of conduct. The misbehaviour and other illegal activities lead to corruption. Hence the officers involved face related consequences on discovery. No department is free of corruption or misconduct. Stress is not limited to a single individual but engulfs the whole department in its grasp. Police officers are at risk for numerous physical ailments such as high blood pressure, insomnia, heart problems, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide due to the pressures of law enforcement. They also have a difficult married and social life. Stress makes them strict parents. This give rise to rebellious children. As Violanti, a 23-year veteran of the New York State Police puts in “Policing is a psychologically stressful work environment filled with danger, high demands, ambiguity in work encounter, human misery and exposure to death," The increase in number of suicides, divorces, heart diseases found in the police officers are due to unseen unsolvable problems brewing inside them. Most of the police officers are found intoxicated during suicide attempt. Many have failed marriages. Blackmore (1978) reported that 37 percent of the officers in a study with 2,300 officers had serious marital difficulties. He reported on another NIOSH study which found that 22 percent of the police officers sampled have been divorced at least once as compared to a national average of 13.8 percent at the time of the study. These officers can’t live a peaceful life or spend any quality time with their family and friends due to the irregular timings and shifts. Their job demands them every minute. Hence, a proper solution to this problem must be identified. Police managers need to find and figure out the stress areas and related problems and find ways to reduce them. The human resource people should counsel them and give them advice on exercises. Such officers can go on long vacations to rejuvenate themselves. Their family too has to be counseled. Half of the stress drains if the officer has a supporting family. The wives of the officers should be made to understand the pressure and risk involved in such jobs. They should be given marriage counseling so that they support their spouses in stress filled situations. Use of force by Police. How much they are responsible? Sometimes Police officers have to use force to bring down commotion in public gatherings. There are chances of using force when the police on encountering the citizen disagree on certain issues. To control the public and restore peace, police have to use force. In rare cases some police officers’ behavior is shown to be abhorrent. They tend to relate to physical force to overcome a given situation. These behaviors often result in using deadly weapons. There were complaints from citizens that officers are brutal and hard hearted. There were times when police used force unnecessarily. Today the scenario has changed the officers do not used force unless required. They are given effective training on the use of force. Police professionalism was brought in and promotions and other increments were based on these. But, at time the use of force was seen necessary. The citizens do not come to a conclusion or halt in their misdemeanor without it. There is commotion during accidents, or strikes etc. Police use force to disperse the crowd. Sometimes they have to hurt the citizens with their batons. This but increases the fury amongst the citizens. The amount of force used to disperse the crowd wholly depends on the police force. They are liable for it. It’s the police’s responsibility that they keep control of the public without any violent actions. The brutality in the officers is seen once the crowd goes out of control. The pressure and stress wins over them and the outcome is violence. The officers are indeed given enough training on overcoming this kind of stress, but sometimes some officers behave in an abnormal manner. Thus they face the consequences of not sticking on to the rules of conduct. Human resources-How they work? The human resources department in the police work round the clock to ensure that the officers are well-trained and educated on the departments’ rules. The HR strategies, policies and services target on the well-being, professional development, good-behavior, and health of the staff. They plan and bring in new policies and systems. They work for the organizations ‘well-being’. They are responsible for the recruitment and retention of the police officers. The human resource departments play a vital role in workforce diversity, counseling, workforce expansion, payroll, leave management etc. They settle disputes between officers. They counsel stressed and depressed officers. The HR department analyses transfer and promotion of any officer. They follow a streamlined and fairer approach. They are totally responsible for the peace and harmony of the department. They play a fair judge to any kind of dispute and take fair judgments on those disputes. They are the key people who are into recruitment, selection and then training. They should have an eye for every minute detail while recruiting. These HR officers are in turn given training in the recruiting. They should know human psychology and body language. These HR officials should not restrict their counseling to the officers alone but also should extend the sessions to their family members. Three departments: Show high levels of integrity The officers in the three departments; The Charleston, south Carolina police department, The Charlotte Mecklenburg North Carolina police department, and The St.Petersburg Florida, police department, also fall prey to stress and related diseases. They have a good human resource management who regularly counsel and take care of their problems. They sure do have high level of integrity and to maintain that they face lots of pressure. Sexual harassment- Any remedy? Continuous news on sexual harassment involving police personnel is published in prominent news papers day in and day out. Lady police officers are sexually harassed by their colleagues. Lot of complaints is registered against police officers by their own department lady workers. Sexual harassment is ignored in most of the cases. Many female cadets leave in the middle of the term, since their complaints are ignored and not taken into account. Many girls do not join the police force due to increasing sexual harassment. How should this be put to an end? The department should form a strict policy on this. A well written sexual harassment policy should be implemented and strictly followed to make a difference. If the sexual harassment complaints get ignored every time, careers of female cadets will be lost. This sexual harassment escalates to criminal sexual offenses and criminal threats in the long run. Usually the victim is minority race females. The harassment is not restricted to females alone. Even males fall prey to this form of exploitation. The abused males mostly belong to the minority classes. Women officers excel in many areas compared to their male counterparts. They do well in rape cases as well in domestic violence cases. Victims feel a greater empathy towards female officers and are more open in sharing their concerns. Research show lady officers have lower rates of unnecessary use of force. They are much patient and do not fall prey to stress easily. A written policy against sexual harassment is a must. It is just one component which will play as a defense. Police departments should adhere to the policy. The commitment starts from the top officials. The policy should clearly define sexual harassment. There should be compulsory training to each and every staff member, on recognizing and remediating sexual harassment. All ranks officers should be handed over this policy. One team leader to monitor the effectiveness of the complaints should be appointed. They should take prompt and remedial action to investigate and punish the guilty. Education and training is a must for successful litigation defense. Police department members should know how to deal with such kind of act. The officers should know to handle sensitive issues so that victim is not hurt on interrogation. Even if there is no written complaint from the victim, the officers should take necessary action in verbal complaint too. Work cited: Roger G. Dunham, Geoffrey P. Alpert. Critical Issues in Policing. Enhancing Police Integrity. Carl B. Klockars Sally E. Heckeroth, A. Michael Barker. Police department efforts to deter sexual harassment, USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education). July, 1997 Read More