Reducing Law Enforcement Suicide Rates: An Intervention Program for Improvement - Research Paper Example

 Reducing Law Enforcement Suicide Rates: An Intervention Program for Improvement Introduction The field of law enforcement is one that is riddled with significant stresses that has measurable impact on self-concept of the law enforcement officer, self-esteem development, and coping strategies used in a difficult and dynamic career position. Compounding the issue of stress is the recognition that law enforcement organizations are known to be “closed, slow-to-change subcultures” (Stephens, 2005, p.53). Therefore, the volume of circumstances and experiences in this field do not get the volume of attention they deserve from law enforcement supervision. The slow-to-change culture will often adhere to long-standing socio-cultural standards associated with appropriate officer behavior which includes maintaining a macho façade, where officers must exert their dominance in social systems with a thick skin and expressing nerves of steel attributes (Orpinuk, 2005). In most law enforcement agencies, this makes up the foundation of organizational culture in which classical, socially-mandated principles of typical masculine behavior must be representative of the officers and associated support staff. In addition, frequent exposure and experience in traumatic situations, as an outcome of this career structure, can lead to significant emotional and psychological problems. Witnessing individuals in fatal crime scenes or fatal accidents (as only two examples) can lead to long-term coping problems when trying to make sense of these traumatic events. It is often under-estimated the volume of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms that are being quietly managed by law enforcement officials who, due to the organizational climate, find shame or disgrace in discussing these issues with peers or supervision. Because of the complexities of situations in law enforcement, prevalence of suicide continues to increase. In order to reduce these ratios and improve law enforcement coping strategies, an intervention program must be implemented to ensure that support, organizational change, behavioral change, and effective counseling services are provided to officers. Law Enforcement Suicide: A Review of Literature The National POLICE Suicide Foundation reports that 447 officers committed suicide in 2004 (Perin, 2007). This was 14 percent of all total, national suicides in the United States in this year as reported by the Centers for Disease Control (Perin, 2007). More recent estimates have determined that one police officer commits suicide every 17 hours (Perin, 2007). Some of the most significant catalysts of suicide in law enforcement are psychological problems, work-related stress, alcohol abuse, and relationship problems (Aamodt & Stalnaker, 2001). Many police officers, in their effort to cope with stress or the traumas of the career position, will turn toward alcohol as a masking mechanism to cover difficult emotions where they seek dissonance, or the process of distancing oneself emotionally from situations that are highly stressful or traumatic (Bowins, 2004). When examining the role of alcohol and drug abuse, these should be considered variables and not the catalyst for why suicide rates in law enforcement continue to rise. There are complicated emotional states that contribute to the dissociation phenomenon, dealing with the slow-to-change organizational culture, lack of peer support for discussion due to long-standing social stigma of officer behavior, and the complexities of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. There are significant demands placed on officers within most law enforcement agencies, demanding that they seek perfectionism in their service provision and as representatives of the broader social community. Highly centralized law enforcement agencies have very clear chains of authority that do not regularly consider the opinion and solutions of law enforcement officers within these systems. The constant demands and critiques stemming from higher-ranking supervision can often lead to a phenomenon of self-oriented perfectionism, where one sets exceedingly high expectations for the self, leading to self-scrutiny and intense criticism as one tries to meet these perfectionist demands (Hewitt & Flett, 1990). In order to attempt to gain acceptance and recognition in a highly centralized organization, the law enforcement officer will attempt to meet unrealistic perfectionist guidelines imposed through organizational culture and, long-term, through self-evaluation criteria. Failing to meet these perfectionism guidelines can lead to depression and a variety of self-defeating behaviors and attitudes. Furthermore, the organizational culture within the law enforcement agency often maintains a phenomenon known as The Blue Wall of Silence, a form of social contract between law enforcement peers that serves to protect other officers from the social stigma of weakness or emotional instability when facing difficult emotional states. According to one interviewed officer in active duty, “You don’t give an officer up. You see someone who needs help and you know in your heart they are not OK. But, we are trained not to push it further” (Perin, 2007, p.9). The masculine-based organizational culture is one that respects the aforementioned thick skinned mentality and thus peer networks do not seek to provide counsel or assistance for fear of exposing the officer in need of emotional support to the other agency officers. Research clearly indicates a culture of silence and stigma avoidance that can lead to a variety of stresses and frustrations for failures in the development of peer support networks. There is also a phenomenon in society referred to as ethical relativism, a theory that describes differing attitudes, values and principles that make it difficult to establish a singular concept of what is tangibly right versus wrong. Ethical relativism teaches us that the diversity of ethical and moral programming is unique among different subcultures in society or within the individual, thus none can justify (concretely) that there should be one singular moral or ethical principle established by which to expect people to abide (Hall, 1997; Fleischacker, 1994). The law enforcement agency and its organizational systems are governed by legislation that is founded on a majority view of ethics and morality and thus there is little flexibility for officers to express their own moral constructs and ethical beliefs within this system. In some cases, the conflict between individual ethical values and morals is significantly different than the moral imperatives imposed on officers during their duties. When such conflict that meets with inherent disparities between how the officer would assess the appropriateness of what they are being asked to do and the tangible law that binds their behavior, significant emotional crises can develop. In essence, the law enforcement officer will not always agree with the cultural and moral imperatives within the law enforcement facility as they maintain radically different views on what is right versus wrong, with some of these conflicting attitudes justified by ethical relativism theory. In relation to actual job duty, the law enforcement officer, as aforementioned, is exposed to a variety of traumatic experiences. Homicides, peer officer suicides, serious accidents, and witnessing of injuries can lead to hostility, social isolation, anger, guilt, or a variety of self-destructive behavior (Conroy, n.d.). In many cases, law enforcement officials must simply swallow down the complexities of emotional swings that result through these observations during duty as the dynamics of fast-paced law enforcement demands moving onto the next critical incident or traumatic experience. Over time, in an effort to curb or suppress these experiences, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms can develop and begin to interrupt normal behavioral functioning. It is unrealistic to believe that these elements can be removed from the law enforcement field as crime rates and incidents of fatal accidents and murders are generally on the rise, however there must be more done at the management level to ensure that such witnessing and observations are appropriately dealt with before long-term psychological maladjustment begins to cause serious health repercussions for the law enforcement officer. There is yet another difficulty when measuring potential catalysts for suicidal behavior in law enforcement officers. There are many in society that maintain very negative views of police officers, with common prejudicial labels such as pig applied to these public service professionals. These are long-standing stereotypes that have significant impact on how the police officer maintains relationships with the criminal and law-abiding public. Many police officer recognize and perceive that they operate under a rather negative public image which has been known to increase intention to commit suicide (Violanti, 1995). To improve this, there are some organizations that put more managerial emphasis on improving community transparency, involving officers in public service events or through education using community leaders and citizens to promote a better image. However, in doing these activities, it does not deal with the individualized complexities of trying to cope with a real-time public service scenario when understanding that many such negative views about the officers exist in society. Rather than having managerial support to assist in individualizing effective coping strategies, it simply places the officer in more potentially uncomfortable community positions and visibility without necessarily dealing with the negative, broad public stigma. In this case, the organization achieves better public reputation with an already-concerned officer facilitating in a disconcerting public situation. Real-life policing organizations have utilized different tactics to reduce suicide rates in police officers. New Jersey developed the Cop2Cop program, a peer support network that staffed a 24-hour crisis hotline with trained policing staff. Cop2Cop provides active listening and support for officers with complex emotional needs or refers the individual to appropriate mental health services (Milgram and Velez, 2009). Over 23,000 calls were taken by this Cop2Cop program, which illustrates the volume of problems existing in the law enforcement field. Other organizations have witnessed more effective behavioral and emotional outcomes by subscribing to publications and training support from The National Police Suicide Foundation. This consists of brochures and quarterly publications that provide information about how to find police support networks, group services, and seminars to assist in coping, stress reduction, or lifestyle counseling between professionals and peers (National Police Suicide Foundation, n.d.). The goal of this foundation is to provide the emotions-based support, spiritual support, and health wellness rarely addressed in law enforcement organization. An Imperative for Seeking Intervention All of the identified literature on the potential and known catalysts for increasing suicide rates among police officers point out several trends. These include poor organizational design and managerial role in promoting effective change, the complex emotional and psychological scenarios within police officers, negative public perception, exposure to traumatic experiences, conflicting ethical and moral imperatives, and a culture of non-support ascribing traditional masculinity to policing. In order to effectively reduce suicide rates in the law enforcement field, there must be the development of an intervention and support program involving multiple law enforcement actors to promote effective change and subsequently reduce suicide ratios. Deming (2002) strongly asserts that nearly 85 percent of all failures in an organization are directly linked to management. Incompetence, lack of understanding of sociological and psychological understandings, and high levels of preferred power distance are only three examples of where management causes failures within an organizational system. According to Grieves (2010, p.8), change in management or the organization is a “negotiated order” where not only centralized authority dictates change, but it involves multiple stakeholder input in order for there to be a successful change implemented. In the policing organization, power distance is established between ranking individuals and there is often a great deal of egotism involved in the political systems within the organization. Thus, it should be acknowledged that tangible structural systems of authority will strongly contribute to negative emotions and behaviors of policing individuals as such levels of power distance do not always recognize the talents and aptitudes of more prominent police officers over less-effective peers. Management failures in not flattening the hierarchy to provide better distributive and procedural justice is a major predictor of stress in police officers and an emotional catalyst leading to suicide through the barriers established for effective appraisal or advancement within the organization. According to Fairholm (2009) in order to change an organizational culture and improve management effectiveness, leaders must take a transformational view. This involves reducing centralized authority and seeking to become an inspirational manager, and one who inspires creativity and human capital value, gaining follower loyalty through shared decision-making and loyalty strategies. To promote more effective coping, remove workplace stressors, and add a sense of task significance to the role of law enforcement, there is clearly a need for managers to take a more active role and work towards change rather than working against it to preserve an ineffective and traditionalist organizational culture. In order to reduce intention to commit suicide brought on by relationship problems or the systems that drive peer relationship development, management role in transformational leadership must be developed and implemented. Developing an Integrated Change System In order to ensure that suicide rates are reduced and the role of complicated emotional catalysts that lead to this phenomenon in law enforcement, an integrated intervention and support strategy must be developed. This program will involve a blend of peer networking, subscription to appropriate help publications and counseling services, in-house stress reduction activities, and broad organizational change will be planned and implemented. The following section, based on the literature provided that illustrates statistics and known catalysts for increasing suicide intention and follow-through of law enforcement officials, will describe the new Police Advantage Program implemented by the organization that includes officer, management, and external stakeholder interaction to create a more rewarding law enforcement career and change long-standing attitudes that plague policing with higher suicide rates. Using effective leadership philosophy and appropriate marketing activity, the Police Advantage Program will provide more effective reduction of suicide within the organization. The Police Advantage Program The Police Advantage Program begins with changing organizational culture. As was identified by Fairholm (2009), the role of leaders must be one that removes layers of authority and provides opportunities for officer creativity, problem solution, and fair appraisals of their service aptitudes to be included in organizational design. Mid-level managers will be given in-service training, to include role-playing, to assist in removing the long-standing power distance barriers between officers and management. Role-playing is known to be an effective method to promote active thinking and consideration about the needs and experiences of lower-level employees by putting managers into a variety of hypothetical scenarios where they play the role of the officer. Role-playing is a type of experiential (hands-on) learning that can change attitudes and improve leadership behaviors (Poorman, 2002). This training will be facilitated by a certified sociologist with credentials in psychology who will develop the curriculum, present it for approval to the management in the organization, and ultimately carry out its six to eight week program design. Costs of this program will include recruitment and salary of the professional for six to eight different intervention strategies, estimated at $5,000 for the program. This is sustainable under the current policing operating budget. In order to change long-standing power distance problems that lead to depression or other negative officer emotions, management must be adjusted to include more knowledge on empathy and team-building as Deming (2002) identified the majority of failures in the organization stemming from management incompetency or poor utilization of leadership philosophy. The Police Advantage Program will also take a lesson from New Jersey and the Cop2Cop program that provides effective, anonymous counseling services to police officers in need. However, it will be expanded to include interventions that occur within the organization. The main goal of the Police Advantage Program is to provide more change imperatives and flexibility within the organization to ensure that there is adequate peer and management support. This requires breaking down the long-standing stigma of classical masculine stereotyping to get officers to openly discuss their complex emotional needs. Twice weekly, an officer will be randomly selected to address the police force and describe one or more situations that have led to complicated emotional outcomes, either professional or personal. Management understands that this is a forced scenario, however it will facilitate more effective interpersonal relationship development and help others to identify with similarities and congruencies in attitude, emotional response, and concerns that other officers are reluctant to discuss. This is also a very low-cost method of interaction that can be appropriately scheduled during various shift changes during the week. This will be an ongoing dimension to the daily meeting format in the organization, arbitrated by mid-level managers who will assist in facilitating discussion based on their own training learning in sociological and psychological theory through role-play. Thus, it is integrated into the program. It is hoped that this will provide closer connection with officers by letting them gain insight into their peers that will provide long-term friendships and support networks that will ultimately extend outside of the policing organization. Stress was one of the main themes in the identified research leading to higher suicide rates. Psychology and health information services alike indicate that stress can be reduced with an effective exercise routine and various coping strategies (Weiten & Lloyd, 2005). Management will be first approving a small capital expenditure into converting one conference room into an exercise and weight room large enough to facilitate regular physical fitness classes. A one-time expenditure of approximately $15,000 will be allocated to various weight machines, stationary bicycles, and tread climbers to promote better health under the acknowledgement that it can improve depression and increase concentration. A fitness expert specializing in yoga, self-defense, and calisthenics will be recruited to conduct bi-weekly fitness classes in which all officers will be appropriately scheduled for participation who are interested in this change philosophy. There are many different individuals in the local community trained on performing these fitness classes and recruitment will require mid-level managers performing appropriate recruitment and selection criteria. It is estimated that this training system will impose approximately $1500 weekly to the operating budget. It is desired that this will improve stress reduction, facilitate better relationships with peer officers, and provide motivation for excellence in service and self-evaluation through commitment and goal attainment in health. The Police Advantage Program will also establish a hotline for anonymous coaching and counseling that will be staffed by two psychologists and volunteer/paid peer officers that have been trained in effective counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy guidance. This will be staffed 24 hours daily and managed from within the organization after converting an appropriate-sized office into a hotline headquarters. Since New Jersey has found significant reduction in suicides and improved peer networks, this is worth the investment of approximately $2500 for development and daily maintenance costs of $800. Success of this particular segment of the program will be measured by statistical analysis of the volume of calls received and the volume of referrals to health services provided. Staffing of this hotline will be adjusted based on data findings or officer use of the system. The organization will also utilize qualitative study evaluation instruments to determine the effectiveness of a new peer focus, decentralization efforts in the organization, and the exercise training program. Interviews and questionnaires will be distributed monthly and then correlated with certain officer socio-demographics to determine what features should be adjusted and which are leading to better perceptions of support and peer relationship development. Change imperatives imposed by the officers in the interview processes will be considered by management and then introduced to facilitate better reduction of power distance. At the same time, a performance appraisal to recognize excellence in policing will be established to provide real-time data about performance and give officers higher task significance that can lead to better emotional responses and commitments. In order for the Police Advantage Program to be successful, it will require ongoing commitment of managers in transformational leadership and regular evaluation of its various components to ensure that cost expenditures are viable and that officers are becoming more involved in the organizational culture and decision-making processes. Surveys, questionnaires and interviews will provide the most valuable information in this area. By improving discussions between officers regarding their professional and personal experiences dealing with trauma, it can help establish a foundation of interpersonal connection that builds a supportive organization network rather than one that is slow-to-change and rigid in its classical views of masculine behaviors. The research literature clearly indicates that witnessing traumatic events has significant negative outcomes on coping skills and behavior of police officers and this must be addressed through more concentrated involvement by peers that work in similar environments on a daily basis. Conclusion Based on all of the research information, this transformational change imperative known as the Police Advantage Program should provide reduction in suicide intention and ratios that plague many law enforcement organizations. It is an integrated strategy that is marketed through direct channels of intervention by managers and peers in the network and is supplemented by anonymity guaranteed in more professionally-trained crisis systems. It is hoped that this will become a benchmark of best practice to all policing organizations and lead to effective outcomes and create a change-focused organizational culture that embraces diversity of thought, improved stress management, and establishes a precedent for successful emotional adjustment to law enforcement officers with complicated psychological or sociological concerns or problems. The management believes that the costs associated with development and ongoing implementation is worth the investment for the expected outcomes on better officer support and emotional care. The Police Advantage Program is based on genuine statistics and assessment of psycho-social knowledge which improves its reliability with effective, routine monitoring of its success potentials and outcomes. References Aamodt, Michael G. & Stalnaker, Nicole A. (2001). Police Officer Suicide: Frequency and Officer Profiles, Retrieved September 11, 2012 from http://www.policeone.com/health-fitness/articles/137133-Police-Officer-Suicide-Frequency-and-officer-profiles/ Bowins, Brad. (2004). Psychological Defense Mechanism: A New Perspective, American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 64(1), pp.1-26. Conroy, D. (n.d.). Why is it so Hard for us to Recover from being Suicidal?, Retrieved September 10, 2012 from www.metanoia.org/suicide/ptsd.htm Deming, W.E. (2002). Chapter 6, in J. Beckford (ed.) Quality: An Introduction. Routledge. Fairholm, M. (2009). Leadership and Organizational Strategy, The Public Sector Innovation . Journal, 14(1), pp.26-27. Fleischacker, S. (1994). The Ethics of Culture. 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