Police Stress Research Paper
Law enforcement, crisis, stress, and the family
There are many professions that are stressful but none of which are more stressful then being a police officer. Dayin and day-out they are required to risk their lives for the benefit and protection of individuals and society as a whole. It is a thankless profession that more then likely will result in family turmoil and unrest. From the stress of a mass casualty situation such as 9/11 or having to use deadly force to defend yourself or someone else, there are dire consequences and repercussions that are often overlooked or wholly ignored.
In this paper I will be covering many of the issues that plague the officer and his or her family. From the demanding grind of having to do shift work, …show more content…
to seldom being around for major holidays or birthdays. The need to balance the rigors of work and family while trying to maintain some semblance of a "normal" life as well as the constant maintenance that one needs to do in order to maintain an officer's family and support system. I will also discuss the affects that suicide and death can have on officers and their families.
The causes of family turmoil and stress are many. A police officer is generally the first person to respond to a crisis, and witnesses first hand all of the evil that people can inflict on each other. As well as the devastating effects that it has on the individuals involved.
There are many contributing factors that cause crisis in the police officers family. They range from having to do "shift work" that causes many disruptions in the family life and activities, to the boredom of routine patrolling and having to deal with "dregs" of society day after day. There is also the constant threat to ones life both on and off duty.
The consequences of these actions are many and can range from general upheaval in the family, to divorce. Police officers typically have a 65%-75% divorce rate (Golfarb). There is also the most extreme step an officer can take and that is to take ones own life.
Several major challenges a police officer has are, to go home at the end of his or her shift. For people in other professions this means "punching out" at the end of their shift and going home. For a police officer it means having to constantly maintain vigilance and safety for his or her self as well as their partners and to maintain, through all else, the family balance and harmony.
There are several courses of action that can be utilized to maintain a stable and stress free home environment. They are, having an open and honest communication with all family members, a strong belief in what is right and wrong, as well as a good support system both in the home and at work.
The "job"
The law enforcement career is an intense and interesting career. It has the potential to be one of the worst jobs that anyone can have, but also has the potential to be the most rewarding profession there is. The "job" has many pitfalls and perils that one must navigate through in order to make it home to the family at the end of their shift. There are many stressful aspects to the "job" that people do not realize. Some of the aspects include the constant threat to the individual officers life and the life of his or her partner. The fact that they seem to deal with the same people over and over again, trying to work with-in a criminal justice system that seems to just be a "revolving" door for the continual release of individuals that need to be doing prison time for the offenses that they have done. Then there is the frustration of having to constantly show patience and restraint, even though every fiber of your existence just wants to reach out and beat the living tar out of someone who desperately deserves it.
All of this manifests itself in stress, stress for the officer and through no fault of their own, and the officers' family. The family seems to receive the brunt of the officer's stress leading to turmoil and imbalance in the officer's family and life.
Shift work
Shift work has a significant impact on an officer's family and can lead to many problems for the family. This is considered to be one of the major components of a high divorce rate among police officers. The national average for divorce in a non-police officer family is approximately 40-45%, while in the law enforcement community the divorce rate is near 65%-75% (golfarb). A major cause of this is the husband and wife's relationship becoming strained while trying to adjust to the rigors of shift work. In many instances the officer who is working the night shift will be coming off duty while the spouse is either getting ready for or is just leaving for work.
In some instances the spouse of an officer may elect to not work outside the home and instead chooses to stay home and care for the family. In the case of a family that has small children that are not of school age they are faced with having to maintain a quiet environment where the officer that has just finished a night shift can come home to get some rest. Spouses and family members can be affected by the officer's shift work in every way from the end-less shift rotation to the sleepless nights wondering and waiting for the officer to come home, and there is the continuous never-ending balance and planning of the family social life. "Some workers can get pulled into a negative, self-perpetuating cycle of poor family life, poor job performance, and poor health. This destructive cycle can ultimately lead to lowered self-esteem, depression, divorce, and job loss" (Shapiro, Helsgrave).
Another pitfall of doing shift work is not being there for your family when they may need you the most. Whether it is missing a child's birthday or having to accommodate a modified schedule to make sure that everyone is together for Christmas and other major holidays it all leads to a major strain on the family of a police officer.
As a police officer or the spouse of a police officer there are many things that can be done to aid in keeping a family balanced and functional. Having a good open line of communication with your spouse is perhaps the biggest single tool that you can have in maintaining a harmonious family. Finding out how ones day went can go along way to making a stress free home. Some warning signs of a stressed out officer may include a lack of communication, lethargy, quick temper and an over use of alcohol and drugs. If you are in tune with your spouses mannerisms this will go along way to helping him or her adjust to coming home as well as maintaining a balanced and harmonious home.
A death in the law enforcement family
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." Arthur Ashe (www.shawnsilvera.org)
Perhaps the greatest pitfall a police officer's family can have is the loss of an officer. Whether it is in the department that the officer works in or in another department, even one that can be many miles from home, it can be extremely stressful for the family.
On average there are approximately 143 law enforcement deaths each year (Haddix). Whether the result of an adversarial action or in an accident, the trauma that it causes has a long lasting affect on both the agency that the individual worked for as well as the officers' family for many months and even years to come. On September 6, 2005, Lino Lakes police officer Shawn B. Silvera was killed in the line of duty while assisting in a high-speed chase on Minnesota Highway 35w. Officer Silvera was struck by the suspect's car after deploying stop-sticks. He died serving his community, displaying actions that typify what the thin blue line of law enforcement stands for-the threshold between order and chaos. Officer Silvera made the SUPREME SACRIFICE. (www.shawnsilvera.org) This incident shook many of the police departments in the Twin Cities area, as well as throughout the state. It caused a lot of police officers to rethink their own mortality and the approach they take to their job as a whole. Officer Silvera was a deeply devoted and well-respected officer in the Lino Lakes police department; his life as well as his death brought a community together. Officer Silvera is a role model to all that want to become a police officer and to those whose lives he touched.
"When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." -Tecumseh. (www.shawnsilvera.org) Suicide
The suicide rate for a law enforcement officer is among the highest in the nation.
A major factor for this is stress. The stress of the job and having to deal with the constant human misery and police bureaucracy, shift work, social strain, marital difficulties and the constant threat of being injured or killed in the line of duty takes its toll. When you combine this with the stress of maintaining a family it is no wonder that approximately 300 officers take there own life each year (Boyce). On August 13th 2006 Police officer Jeff Sipe tragically ended his own life. Officer Jeff Sipe was a member of the Blaine police department. Officer Sipe is just one example of what can happen when the support system that an officer relies on fails. There are many avenues for support that are available to a police officer. If the family system that an officer relies on is non-existent then it falls to the department that the officer works for to help. Unfortunately, for some officers they do not seek help until it is to late, then they end up taking what is thought by the most of the police officers as the easy way …show more content…
out.
Coping with the stress The causes of family turmoil and stress are many. A police officer is generally the first person to respond to a crisis, and witnesses first hand all of the evil that people can inflict on each other. They also deal with the devastating effects that it has on the individuals involved. Not all the stress that a police officer feels can be helped, but with a proper family support system it can be lessened and dealt with in a proper way. Some of these ways are through training for both the officer as well as his or her spouse. The officer and his or her spouse need to be able to know and recognize the signs of stress as well as their own breaking points. The officer needs to know when to leave the work at work and that there also needs to be time for family and friends. Events such as vacations and hobbies will also take some of the stress off the family. Russell C. Doc Davis, Ph.D., in his article, Stress- The Silent Cop Killer, gives a list of twenty-one guidelines to help develop a powerful and positive defense against the effects of stress. The following are just a few of the more important:
Know your strengths and accept your limitations, be introspective learn to laugh, remind yourself that you may not be able to control those things which happen around you or the actions and words of other people but you have 100% ability to control your reactions to them, make certain that your plans and priorities include plenty of time for you and yours, learn to leave your job at work. This is one of the most difficult things for officers to do. Develop time for family and friends. Get a hobby or two. And most important:
Learn to say no!
Critical incident response
One of the most difficult times in an officer's life is when they are involved in critical incident.
On July 17th, 2001 officer Mike Long with the Spring Lake Park police department was involved in a shootout in Columbia Heights. It will forever be a day that changed his life. Officer Long responded to a call for assistance from another department, there was a man running though a neighborhood firing a semi-automatic rifle and had injured several people. Upon arriving on scene Officer Long found himself directly in the line of fire. After several minutes two other officers arrived from other agencies to assist. It was at this point that a bullet struck one of the arriving officers, wounding the officer severely. After attending to the fallen officer, Officer Long again found himself and his partner under fire, this time his partner was struck by a
bullet.
Shortly after the last officer was wounded they were able to apprehend the suspect and take him into custody. This incident had a major impact on Officer Long and his family. It was reported erroneously by a local television station that an Officer from the Spring Lake Police department had been wounded in the incident. This information reached Officer Long's wife before he had a chance to call and tell her that he was all right and was not injured. Officer Long had many problems processing the incident and consequently withdrew into himself for several days afterward. Officer Long found that his only way for dealing with the impact this incident had on him was to talk about it through what is called a "Critical Incident de-brief". This is a process where all personnel involved in the incident, from the dispatchers and officers to all the rescue personnel, got together and talked the incident out. They discussed everything that happened from the response to the incident, to the officers being wounded, to how they could better handle the situation in the future, for most this was highly therapeutic. For Officer Long it is what helped him move past the incident and put things right with his family. Had it not been for the critical incident de-brief Officer Long feels that this could have had an even greater negative impact on him and his family.
Without question, the job of a police officer is one of the most stressful occupations that someone can get into. At the same time it can be one of the most exciting and rewarding occupations to be in. With proper training, and good communication an officer and his or her spouse can work through all the pitfalls and perils that seem to plague a police officer and their family. With a lot of hard work and effort they can keep from becoming another bad statistic.
I have been where you fear to go...
I have seen what you fear to see...
I have done what you fear to do...
All these things I've done for you.
I am the one you lean upon...
The one you cast your scorn upon...
The one you bring your troubles to...
All these people I've been for you.
The one you ask to stand apart...
The one you feel should have no heart...
The one you call the man in blue...
But I am human just like you.
And through the years I've come to see...
That I'm not what you ask of me...
So take this badge and take this gun...
Will you take it? Will anyone?
And when you watch a person die...
And hear a battered baby cry...
Then so you think that you can be
All those things you ask of me...?
"Tears Of A Cop" - author unknown
Annotated bibliography
Miskemen, Mel C Cops Kid, A Milwaukee Memoir. 2003
This book is an observation through the life of a cops kid and the troubles and perils that go with it.
Stone, Vali Cops Don't cry: A book of help and hope for police families. 1999
This book deals with the daily life of being a police officer and is an aid to how to cope with stresses of being a cop's family. Author Unknown, "Tears of a Cop" under pressure. www.tearsofcop.com
A poem about the life of a cop Kruger, Karen J J.D. Dealing with Domestic Violence in Law Enforcement Relationships. 2002 www.fbi.gov
This is an article on the statistics and how to cope with domestic violence in the law enforcement community both as a department and as a family.
Goldfarb, Dan and Keesee, Mary Beware of the Second Wave for Cops and Their Kids.
This an article that appeared in "Off Duty" magazine in response to the TWA 800 plane crash. It describes the stages of dealing with the stress of a mass casualty situation and how it affects the family of the responders.
Brown, Randy Police officer for the city of Spring Lake Park Minnesota
This is an interview about how being a police officer has effected him and his family. Long, Mike. Police officer for the city of Spring Lake Park Minnesota. This is an interview about being a police officer and having been injured in the line of duty, and the effects that it has had on him and his family.
Sergeant James Boyce. Police Officers Under Stress. March 23rd 2006 This is a paper on how stress affects police officers and ways to cope with it.
The Sean Silvera memorial website www.seansilvera.org
This is a website dedicated to fallen officer Sean Silvera
Davis, Russell C.Doc Ph.D. Stress- The Silent Cop Killer
As quoted in "Police Officers Under Stress" By Sergeant James Boyce Arkansas Highway police.
There are many professions that are stressful but none of which are more stressful then being a police officer. Dayin and day-out they are required to risk their lives for the benefit and protection of individuals and society as a whole. It is a thankless profession that more then likely will result in family turmoil and unrest. From the stress of a mass casualty situation such as 9/11 or having to use deadly force to defend yourself or someone else, there are dire consequences and repercussions that are often overlooked or wholly ignored.
In this paper I will be covering many of the issues that plague the officer and his or her family. From the demanding grind of having to do shift work, …show more content…
to seldom being around for major holidays or birthdays. The need to balance the rigors of work and family while trying to maintain some semblance of a "normal" life as well as the constant maintenance that one needs to do in order to maintain an officer's family and support system. I will also discuss the affects that suicide and death can have on officers and their families.
The causes of family turmoil and stress are many. A police officer is generally the first person to respond to a crisis, and witnesses first hand all of the evil that people can inflict on each other. As well as the devastating effects that it has on the individuals involved.
There are many contributing factors that cause crisis in the police officers family. They range from having to do "shift work" that causes many disruptions in the family life and activities, to the boredom of routine patrolling and having to deal with "dregs" of society day after day. There is also the constant threat to ones life both on and off duty.
The consequences of these actions are many and can range from general upheaval in the family, to divorce. Police officers typically have a 65%-75% divorce rate (Golfarb). There is also the most extreme step an officer can take and that is to take ones own life.
Several major challenges a police officer has are, to go home at the end of his or her shift. For people in other professions this means "punching out" at the end of their shift and going home. For a police officer it means having to constantly maintain vigilance and safety for his or her self as well as their partners and to maintain, through all else, the family balance and harmony.
There are several courses of action that can be utilized to maintain a stable and stress free home environment. They are, having an open and honest communication with all family members, a strong belief in what is right and wrong, as well as a good support system both in the home and at work.
The "job"
The law enforcement career is an intense and interesting career. It has the potential to be one of the worst jobs that anyone can have, but also has the potential to be the most rewarding profession there is. The "job" has many pitfalls and perils that one must navigate through in order to make it home to the family at the end of their shift. There are many stressful aspects to the "job" that people do not realize. Some of the aspects include the constant threat to the individual officers life and the life of his or her partner. The fact that they seem to deal with the same people over and over again, trying to work with-in a criminal justice system that seems to just be a "revolving" door for the continual release of individuals that need to be doing prison time for the offenses that they have done. Then there is the frustration of having to constantly show patience and restraint, even though every fiber of your existence just wants to reach out and beat the living tar out of someone who desperately deserves it.
All of this manifests itself in stress, stress for the officer and through no fault of their own, and the officers' family. The family seems to receive the brunt of the officer's stress leading to turmoil and imbalance in the officer's family and life.
Shift work
Shift work has a significant impact on an officer's family and can lead to many problems for the family. This is considered to be one of the major components of a high divorce rate among police officers. The national average for divorce in a non-police officer family is approximately 40-45%, while in the law enforcement community the divorce rate is near 65%-75% (golfarb). A major cause of this is the husband and wife's relationship becoming strained while trying to adjust to the rigors of shift work. In many instances the officer who is working the night shift will be coming off duty while the spouse is either getting ready for or is just leaving for work.
In some instances the spouse of an officer may elect to not work outside the home and instead chooses to stay home and care for the family. In the case of a family that has small children that are not of school age they are faced with having to maintain a quiet environment where the officer that has just finished a night shift can come home to get some rest. Spouses and family members can be affected by the officer's shift work in every way from the end-less shift rotation to the sleepless nights wondering and waiting for the officer to come home, and there is the continuous never-ending balance and planning of the family social life. "Some workers can get pulled into a negative, self-perpetuating cycle of poor family life, poor job performance, and poor health. This destructive cycle can ultimately lead to lowered self-esteem, depression, divorce, and job loss" (Shapiro, Helsgrave).
Another pitfall of doing shift work is not being there for your family when they may need you the most. Whether it is missing a child's birthday or having to accommodate a modified schedule to make sure that everyone is together for Christmas and other major holidays it all leads to a major strain on the family of a police officer.
As a police officer or the spouse of a police officer there are many things that can be done to aid in keeping a family balanced and functional. Having a good open line of communication with your spouse is perhaps the biggest single tool that you can have in maintaining a harmonious family. Finding out how ones day went can go along way to making a stress free home. Some warning signs of a stressed out officer may include a lack of communication, lethargy, quick temper and an over use of alcohol and drugs. If you are in tune with your spouses mannerisms this will go along way to helping him or her adjust to coming home as well as maintaining a balanced and harmonious home.
A death in the law enforcement family
True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost." Arthur Ashe (www.shawnsilvera.org)
Perhaps the greatest pitfall a police officer's family can have is the loss of an officer. Whether it is in the department that the officer works in or in another department, even one that can be many miles from home, it can be extremely stressful for the family.
On average there are approximately 143 law enforcement deaths each year (Haddix). Whether the result of an adversarial action or in an accident, the trauma that it causes has a long lasting affect on both the agency that the individual worked for as well as the officers' family for many months and even years to come. On September 6, 2005, Lino Lakes police officer Shawn B. Silvera was killed in the line of duty while assisting in a high-speed chase on Minnesota Highway 35w. Officer Silvera was struck by the suspect's car after deploying stop-sticks. He died serving his community, displaying actions that typify what the thin blue line of law enforcement stands for-the threshold between order and chaos. Officer Silvera made the SUPREME SACRIFICE. (www.shawnsilvera.org) This incident shook many of the police departments in the Twin Cities area, as well as throughout the state. It caused a lot of police officers to rethink their own mortality and the approach they take to their job as a whole. Officer Silvera was a deeply devoted and well-respected officer in the Lino Lakes police department; his life as well as his death brought a community together. Officer Silvera is a role model to all that want to become a police officer and to those whose lives he touched.
"When your time comes to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song, and die like a hero going home." -Tecumseh. (www.shawnsilvera.org) Suicide
The suicide rate for a law enforcement officer is among the highest in the nation.
A major factor for this is stress. The stress of the job and having to deal with the constant human misery and police bureaucracy, shift work, social strain, marital difficulties and the constant threat of being injured or killed in the line of duty takes its toll. When you combine this with the stress of maintaining a family it is no wonder that approximately 300 officers take there own life each year (Boyce). On August 13th 2006 Police officer Jeff Sipe tragically ended his own life. Officer Jeff Sipe was a member of the Blaine police department. Officer Sipe is just one example of what can happen when the support system that an officer relies on fails. There are many avenues for support that are available to a police officer. If the family system that an officer relies on is non-existent then it falls to the department that the officer works for to help. Unfortunately, for some officers they do not seek help until it is to late, then they end up taking what is thought by the most of the police officers as the easy way …show more content…
out.
Coping with the stress The causes of family turmoil and stress are many. A police officer is generally the first person to respond to a crisis, and witnesses first hand all of the evil that people can inflict on each other. They also deal with the devastating effects that it has on the individuals involved. Not all the stress that a police officer feels can be helped, but with a proper family support system it can be lessened and dealt with in a proper way. Some of these ways are through training for both the officer as well as his or her spouse. The officer and his or her spouse need to be able to know and recognize the signs of stress as well as their own breaking points. The officer needs to know when to leave the work at work and that there also needs to be time for family and friends. Events such as vacations and hobbies will also take some of the stress off the family. Russell C. Doc Davis, Ph.D., in his article, Stress- The Silent Cop Killer, gives a list of twenty-one guidelines to help develop a powerful and positive defense against the effects of stress. The following are just a few of the more important:
Know your strengths and accept your limitations, be introspective learn to laugh, remind yourself that you may not be able to control those things which happen around you or the actions and words of other people but you have 100% ability to control your reactions to them, make certain that your plans and priorities include plenty of time for you and yours, learn to leave your job at work. This is one of the most difficult things for officers to do. Develop time for family and friends. Get a hobby or two. And most important:
Learn to say no!
Critical incident response
One of the most difficult times in an officer's life is when they are involved in critical incident.
On July 17th, 2001 officer Mike Long with the Spring Lake Park police department was involved in a shootout in Columbia Heights. It will forever be a day that changed his life. Officer Long responded to a call for assistance from another department, there was a man running though a neighborhood firing a semi-automatic rifle and had injured several people. Upon arriving on scene Officer Long found himself directly in the line of fire. After several minutes two other officers arrived from other agencies to assist. It was at this point that a bullet struck one of the arriving officers, wounding the officer severely. After attending to the fallen officer, Officer Long again found himself and his partner under fire, this time his partner was struck by a
bullet.
Shortly after the last officer was wounded they were able to apprehend the suspect and take him into custody. This incident had a major impact on Officer Long and his family. It was reported erroneously by a local television station that an Officer from the Spring Lake Police department had been wounded in the incident. This information reached Officer Long's wife before he had a chance to call and tell her that he was all right and was not injured. Officer Long had many problems processing the incident and consequently withdrew into himself for several days afterward. Officer Long found that his only way for dealing with the impact this incident had on him was to talk about it through what is called a "Critical Incident de-brief". This is a process where all personnel involved in the incident, from the dispatchers and officers to all the rescue personnel, got together and talked the incident out. They discussed everything that happened from the response to the incident, to the officers being wounded, to how they could better handle the situation in the future, for most this was highly therapeutic. For Officer Long it is what helped him move past the incident and put things right with his family. Had it not been for the critical incident de-brief Officer Long feels that this could have had an even greater negative impact on him and his family.
Without question, the job of a police officer is one of the most stressful occupations that someone can get into. At the same time it can be one of the most exciting and rewarding occupations to be in. With proper training, and good communication an officer and his or her spouse can work through all the pitfalls and perils that seem to plague a police officer and their family. With a lot of hard work and effort they can keep from becoming another bad statistic.
I have been where you fear to go...
I have seen what you fear to see...
I have done what you fear to do...
All these things I've done for you.
I am the one you lean upon...
The one you cast your scorn upon...
The one you bring your troubles to...
All these people I've been for you.
The one you ask to stand apart...
The one you feel should have no heart...
The one you call the man in blue...
But I am human just like you.
And through the years I've come to see...
That I'm not what you ask of me...
So take this badge and take this gun...
Will you take it? Will anyone?
And when you watch a person die...
And hear a battered baby cry...
Then so you think that you can be
All those things you ask of me...?
"Tears Of A Cop" - author unknown
Annotated bibliography
Miskemen, Mel C Cops Kid, A Milwaukee Memoir. 2003
This book is an observation through the life of a cops kid and the troubles and perils that go with it.
Stone, Vali Cops Don't cry: A book of help and hope for police families. 1999
This book deals with the daily life of being a police officer and is an aid to how to cope with stresses of being a cop's family. Author Unknown, "Tears of a Cop" under pressure. www.tearsofcop.com
A poem about the life of a cop Kruger, Karen J J.D. Dealing with Domestic Violence in Law Enforcement Relationships. 2002 www.fbi.gov
This is an article on the statistics and how to cope with domestic violence in the law enforcement community both as a department and as a family.
Goldfarb, Dan and Keesee, Mary Beware of the Second Wave for Cops and Their Kids.
This an article that appeared in "Off Duty" magazine in response to the TWA 800 plane crash. It describes the stages of dealing with the stress of a mass casualty situation and how it affects the family of the responders.
Brown, Randy Police officer for the city of Spring Lake Park Minnesota
This is an interview about how being a police officer has effected him and his family. Long, Mike. Police officer for the city of Spring Lake Park Minnesota. This is an interview about being a police officer and having been injured in the line of duty, and the effects that it has had on him and his family.
Sergeant James Boyce. Police Officers Under Stress. March 23rd 2006 This is a paper on how stress affects police officers and ways to cope with it.
The Sean Silvera memorial website www.seansilvera.org
This is a website dedicated to fallen officer Sean Silvera
Davis, Russell C.Doc Ph.D. Stress- The Silent Cop Killer
As quoted in "Police Officers Under Stress" By Sergeant James Boyce Arkansas Highway police.