Dealing with Police Stress
Police stress is important to control and to deal with. Some officers have to seek help to control it. In the police business there is no telling what you run in to on a day by day schedule, there is not the same work day twice. One day you will by just giving people tickets to the next day dealing with someone being shot. Anyone can understand if you see someone being shot then it makes you a little stressed out. Stress plays a part in the lives of everyone. Some stress is not only inevitable, it can be good. For example, the physical stress of “working out” improves your cardiovascular system, and feeling pressure that causes you to study harder for an exam can improve your score. Police stress, however, refers to the negative pressures related to police work. Police officers are not super humans. According to Gail Goolkasian and others, research shows that they are affected by their daily exposure to human indecency and pain; that dealing with a suspicious and sometimes hostile public takes its toll on them; and that the shift changes, the long periods of boredom, and the ever-present danger that are part of police work do cause serious job stress.
Every police department has many officers that are being affected by stress whether it’s negative or positive, some officers knows how to handle it and some needs some help like counseling. The stress can come in many forms, some can be internal or external pressure to succeed, it can cause problems with friends and family, some can be lack of self esteem, some lack of self confidence, some can be caused by things at work or even some at home, or even not getting enough sleep. One of the difficulties for police officers is the fact that they do shift work, they are assigned to a certain shifts that they must work regardless of holidays or any other special occasions such as aniversities or birthdays. This is really hard for police officers with family, as the family does not understand why their husband/wife or
Every police department has many officers that are being affected by stress whether it’s negative or positive, some officers knows how to handle it and some needs some help like counseling. The stress can come in many forms, some can be internal or external pressure to succeed, it can cause problems with friends and family, some can be lack of self esteem, some lack of self confidence, some can be caused by things at work or even some at home, or even not getting enough sleep. One of the difficulties for police officers is the fact that they do shift work, they are assigned to a certain shifts that they must work regardless of holidays or any other special occasions such as aniversities or birthdays. This is really hard for police officers with family, as the family does not understand why their husband/wife or
References: Baker, Thomas E. M. S. and Baker, Jane P. M.S. (October 1996). Preventing Police Suicide. FBI Law Enforcement. Retrieved on June 13, 2003 from SIRS Knowledge Source. http://www.sirs.com Constant, Terry, (1991), Not So Obvious Police Stress, retrieved from Internet. Geiszler Paul, 1998 Law Enforcement Blues: Cops and Divorce, Carroll College Library Waukesha, Wisconsin.