ivchapter11StreSS—theOccUpatIONaLScOUrGe.docx

iv
chapter
11
StreSS—the OccUpatIONaL
ScOUrGe?
373
The Consequences of Police Stress
Morbidity and Mortality
Alcohol Abuse
Suicide
Marital Tensions
Another Outlook on Police Stress
Stress Management
Eliminating Stressors
Learning to Cope
Reaching Out
Summary

Review Questions
Discussion Questions
Selected Internet Sites
References
Cases Cited
chapter OUtLINe
Key Terms
Learning Objectives
Introduction
Defining Stress
Types of Stress
The Stress Reaction Cycle
Sources of Police Stress
Intra-Individual Sources
Inter-Individual Sources
Organizational Sources
Shift Work
Equipment

Citizen Complaints
Environmental Sources
The Community
The Criminal Justice System
The Constant Threat of Danger
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374 Part 4 Off the Streets

normal drinker
post-shooting trauma
resistance stage
rotating shift
stand-by status
stress
stress inoculation
stress management
symbolic assailant
Type A personality
Type B personality
witness management unit
Key termS
alarm reaction stage
alcohol-dependent person
alcoholic
burnout
circadian rhythm

death certificate
distress
early warning program
eustress
exhaustion stage
general adaptation syndrome (GAS)
morbidity
mortality
• Show how the circadian rhythm
relates to police stress;
• Explain how morbidity and mortality
relate to stress;
• Outline some consequences of
police stress;
• Debate whether policing is one of
the most stressful jobs;
• Recognize how police stress affects
the image of policing; and
• Discuss efforts to alleviate police
stress.
LearNING ObjectIveS

The study of this chapter will enable
you to:
• Define what stress is;
• Distinguish good stress from bad
stress;
• List the stages in the General
Adaptation Syndrome;
• Tell how stress affects the body;
• Identify various sources of police
stress;
• Give some examples of the various
sources of police stress;
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Chapter 11 Stress—the Occupational
Scourge? 375
Introduction
Every year countless numbers of police officers face assailants
armed with guns, knives,
or other dangerous weapons. Even unarmed persons, some of
whom are mentally ill
or high on drugs, combat officers in order to avoid being
arrested. Sometimes, these
officers are unable to return home after such violent encounters.
Some die in the line of
duty. Others wake up in hospital beds, recuperating from their
wounds. Some will never
be able to resume their law enforcement careers.
Officers who complete a tour of duty in one piece are not
always fortunate enough
to be spared from their share of human anguish. Imagine the
emotional toll that officers
feel when they must notify families that a loved one, either a
parent or a child, is no
longer alive. Other officers investigate child abuse incidents.
There they see marks of
unimaginable torture and demented violence perpetrated against
children too little to
understand why. Police personnel respond to wrecks where they
try to rescue innocent

people savagely maimed by irrational drunk drivers. They
administer CPR in a futile
effort to revive the lifeless stranger in their arms. They walk
dark streets and alleyways
filled with the stench of garbage and the aroma of alcoholics,
addicts, and other street
people. Then, they go home.
There is an old adage that “A man’s home is his castle.” For
many officers, the home
is their castle. However, the moats and drawbridges they erect
fail to lock out the world
entirely. As most officers come to realize, the streets have an
uninvited way of invading
that sanctuary. One cannot simply block out or will away the
memories of human mis-
ery that linger in the recesses of the mind. For many officers,
alcohol is an easy way to
numb one’s feelings. Booze helps cope with the lack of
companionship during the wee
hours brought on by the inflexible demands of shift work.
Unfortunately, the barriers that
some officers use to shield themselves from the onslaught of
their chosen work create
more misery. Interpersonal relationships deteriorate. The person
becomes moodier. The
network of friends gradually shrinks over time. The ravages of
stress isolate officers and
intensify dramatically.
In order to understand what stress is, this chapter begins with a
section that explores
various definitions of this phenomenon. After examining the
physiological changes
that accompany stress, the following sections identify the
stressors associated with law

enforcement and detail their consequences. Finally, there is a
discussion about whether
this preoccupation with stress presents a distorted picture of law
enforcement and what
can be done to manage stress.
Defining Stress
Most people probably would agree that law enforcement is a
stressful occupation.
Unfortunately, there is no one definition of stress which all
experts would approve.
For example, Hans Selye (1973, p. 692), a pioneer in this area,
contends that stress is
“the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon
it.” Other researchers
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might object to the “nonspecific response” portion and would
substitute a definition that
includes some cognitive element. For example, Grencik (1981,
p. 44) states that stress
“occurs when a person perceives that he is unable to cope with
the demands made upon
him and when the consequences of this inability to cope are
threatening.” In other words,
stress amounts to a psychological overload on the person
(Stratton, 1978).
One important feature of some definitions is that stress can
affect people in different
ways. This recognition of individuality leads to a definition that
focuses on one’s percep-
tion. Here, stress takes place “only if the individual perceives
that social demands cannot
be adequately handled” (Violanti, 1983, p. 211).
Some writers prefer the term “burnout” in connection with the
topic of stress. This
approach emphasizes the idea that overloaded workers represent
a depleted organiza-
tional resource. As one observer explains, “Burn out is used to
refer to the situation in
which what was formerly a ‘calling’ becomes merely a job . . . .
the term refers to the loss
of enthusiasm, excitement, and a sense of mission in one’s
work” (Cherniss, 1980, p. 16).

Burnout occurs when there is a constant disjunction between job
demands and worker
resources. One becomes less effective as this gap widens.
Service providers experience
strain at this point. They realize they are not working up to their
full potential. These work-
ers feel like they are on a perennial treadmill. The harder they
try to adjust, the more the
gap widens. The fatigue and tension derived from repeated, but
futile, attempts to improve
eventually lead to defensive coping tactics. While some tech
niques help workers scale
down their expectations, a more common route is to build a
shell around one’s self. The
inevitable result is “a tendency to treat clients in a detached and
mechanical fashion or a
cynical preoccupation with gratification of one’s own needs”
(Cherniss, 1980, pp. 17–18).
types of Stress
A second type of stress, the kind with which this chapter deals,
is distress. Distress car-
ries negative results. One can think of distress as the strain that
develops as a person
becomes more and more engulfed in his or her occupational
role. While some people
can adapt more easily than others to stressful conditions,
distress eventually produces
several harmful effects. Before we can detail these products,
however, we need to under-
stand how stress impacts the body physically.
the Stress reaction cycle
Early investigations into stress demonstrated a physiological
reaction to one’s percep-
tions (Levi, 1967; Selye, 1974). These findings led to the

recognition that an organism
under stress reacts in a very predictable way. This patterned
response, called the General
Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), consists of three stages. They are
the alarm reaction, resis-
tance, and exhaustion stages.
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Scourge? 377
The perception of some stressful condition or event triggers the
alarm reaction stage.

The body immediately responds to a threat by accelerating the
production of certain
hormones and chemicals. An unconscious process stimulates the
sympathetic system,
which is comprised of the heart and lungs. The heart beats
faster and breathing becomes
quicker and shallower. Certain glands activate and produce fuel
for consumption by the
muscles. One of the more important hormones, adrenaline,
pumps the body into a state
of alert or readiness.
All of us have felt this stage at one time or another. The old
trick of sneaking up
behind someone and screeching out a loud “boo” inevitably
startles the unsuspecting
person. The physical reaction generated here is what happens
during the alarm reaction
phase. The person can feel the heartbeat zoom, breathing
becomes labored, and the body
creates an overall chemical dump.
The second step in the GAS is the resistance stage. Here the
body steps up hormone
production to correspond to the level of threat or attack. If the
situation does not end, the
body continues its enhanced production until the organism is at
peak alertness. A final
spurt of energy or the execution of a massive task would fit
here.
The last stage, exhaustion, comes when the body finally runs
out of fuel. The
physical reserves must recuperate or get replenished in order to
rejuvenate the body.
Proper nutrition plays an important role here. Sleep and

relaxation are two common
forms of intervention.
Persons who undergo eustress travel through all three stages of
the cycle. Upon
reaching the exhaustion stage, they enjoy a welcomed rest
period. Under distress, how-
ever, rest is a luxury denied. Rather than having a chance to
recuperate, these people
return to their previous activities. New events that trigger the
GAS bombard them again
and again. There is not a sufficient rest period between episodes
for the body to repair
itself. The net result of this repeated process is that certain
hormones and their harmful
byproducts remain trapped within the body. The efficiency of
the alarm stage dwindles
and the exhaustion stage sets in earlier than what may be
optimal for the organism.
There is some evidence that police work aggravates or impedes
stress repairs. The
experience of stress greatly reduces the presence of certain
elements, such as vitamins
B6, C, and zinc, within the body. Scientists have linked low
readings of vitamin B6 with
diabetes. A depletion of vitamin C carries a greater
susceptibility to cardiac irregularities.
A zinc deficiency may indicate other life-threatening physical
dysfunctions. Bearing this
in mind, one researcher tested vitamin C levels in rookie police
officers on days devoted
to classroom instruction or field experience (Hageman, 1982).
All the officers recorded
normal levels at the beginning of daily activities. However,
officers who completed tours

of duty in the field displayed dangerously depleted levels of
vitamin C. Other research
has shown that police officers demonstrated elevated heart beats
at the conclusion of
their shifts (Anderson, Litzenberger, & Plecas, 2002) and during
the course of calls for
service (Hickman, Fricas, Strom, & Pope, 2011). When taken as
a whole, these results
show that police work is stressful and can have a negative
impact on one’s health.
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As we can see, it is not the experience of stress itself that
causes dire outcomes.
Instead, it is the inability to recuperate sufficiently from the
exhaustion stage that places
an inordinate demand on the body. The constant bombardment
of stressors hurled at
police officers can extract a painful toll. But before we begin to
look at the consequences
of stress, we need to discuss just what kinds of stressors police
officers face.
Sources of police Stress
Once researchers realized that stress was an integral part of
police work, they began
to track its sources. There are four major sources of police
stress. They include items
peculiar to the individual, friction that develops between
people, conflict between the
individual officer and the organization, and tension between an
individual and the envi-
ronment. The following materials explore each of these
categories in greater detail.
Intra-Individual Sources
The impact of stress depends very much on an individual’s
perception and other inter-
nal factors. What stresses one person may not affect another
individual. In addition, a
person’s own reaction to the same stressor may vary from one
occasion to the next. For
example, if the person is well-rested and in good spirits, the
stressor may present just a
mild inconvenience or an insignificant irritation. However, if
the individual is fatigued
and overworked, the impact may achieve a greater magnitude.

At the same time, stress
will vary according to the conditions that a person finds himself
or herself experiencing.
Stress may result from a buildup or an accumulation of
annoyances over a period of time
or may be the product of a sudden, catastrophic event. In short,
stress can be a highly
individualized process.
Some commentators also suggest that one’s personality may be
an important mediator
when handling stress (Cherniss, 1980, pp. 127–131; Grencik,
1981, pp. 42–44). Take, for
example, the popular division between a Type A and a Type B
personality. Type A persons
have a tremendous drive, high anxiety levels, and an almost
insatiable desire to excel in
all endeavors. Type B personalities are much less driven. They
are more moderate in their
work habits and living styles. Type A personalities are more
prone to ulcers and heart
attacks than Type B persons because of the pressures these
characteristics generate.
Career goals and aspirations could form an important
component of job stress
(Cherniss, 1980, pp. 132–141). One trend we discussed earlier
was the movement towards
hiring better-educated applicants for sworn law enforcement
positions. The thinking
expressed by the President’s Commission and other blue-ribbon
committees is that col-
lege-educated officers would be more understanding and
sensitive to the needs of others.
Leaving aside the issue of whether this contention is true, this

new generation of
officers brings certain expectations with them to the job. Most
newly hired employees
start their jobs with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. They
commonly believe that if they
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Scourge? 379
work hard and do a good job, they will gain recognition and
reap an appropriate reward
for this commitment. Often this expectation becomes translated

into a desire to advance
to a key position within the agency. The unfortunate reality,
however, is that not every
outstanding officer can receive a promotion.
As Chapter 3 explained, the police organization has the shape of
a pyramid. Most of
the positions are at the floor of the structure. There is room
only for a handful of people
as one moves upward in the organizational chart. This blockage
frustrates better edu-
cated or highly motivated officers. No matter how hard they
work or how productive they
become, upward mobility is impossible until the person who
currently is in that position
retires or quits (Dantzker, 1992).
Once a vacancy does appear, competition is severe. Often
achievements are quite
similar among promotable candidates in the pool. Officers who
do not receive a promo-
tion might perceive the selection process to be biased or
contaminated. They might point
to such external constraints as affirmative action or politics. In
any event, the message
becomes quite clear. The rewards are not commensurate with
the effort. Job satisfaction
erodes and stress increases.
Before closing this discussion, a word of caution is in order.
There is a potentially
large pitfall to be aware of when discussing intra-individual
sources of stress. Because
stress varies from one person to the next, it might be tempting
to ask what is wrong
with a particular person who has a stress reaction. Such a stance

mistakenly conveys the
impression that one can trace the problem of stress to some
psychological deficit inside
the individual. Instead, it would be more correct to recognize
that influences outside
the individual, when combined with certain traits, interact in
such a way as to produce
stress. As one research team put it, “The interaction between the
sources of stress, how
they are perceived, and a person’s individual characteristics
determines whether coping
or maladaptive behavior will result” (Webb & Smith, 1980, p.
254).
Inter-Individual Sources
Stress can also arise from interaction between people. While
observers traditionally
place supervisor-employee relations within this category,
another kind of stressor has
surfaced during the past few years. It deals with communicable
diseases.
Police officers come into contact with a variety of people from
all walks of life.
Unlike other jobs, police officers cannot screen the clients with
whom they must deal.
As a result, many officers risk exposure to a host of medical
conditions.
The AIDS epidemic and other infectious diseases, for example,
have prompted a
re-evaluation of emergency response procedures. Many agencies
now advise officers to
check conditions thoroughly and then take appropriate
precautions before engaging in
a potentially hazardous situation. One way to contract AIDS is

through an exchange of
body fluids, such as blood. As a result, one safety practice is to
carry latex gloves and to
put them on before handling persons with open wounds. Another
barrier being used is a
shield or mask when giving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. This
mechanism has a valve
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designed to prevent the victim’s fl uids from reaching the
responder. Special procedures

for the disposal of contaminated equipment or bio-hazards also
are in place.
Offi cers are susceptible to a variety of other diseases or
bacteria. Skin irritations,
such as impetigo or lice, can be transmitted from infected
persons (Kroes, 1988a, p. 87).
One offi cer described how his experiences almost led to his
resignation. Several days
after handling an intoxicated person who was infected with
hepatitis, the offi cer’s new-
born baby became seriously ill. After speaking to the nurse,
she instructed me to bring the entire family in and, if I would,
kindly use the back
door when we got there. Panic and hysteria swept through my
wife. Guilt reigned
over terror in my mind. I had infected my own little boy. The
damn streets had
invaded my home again. This time, though, I was ready to quit
(Doerner, 1985,
p. 399).
There are plenty of other interpersonal sources of stress for
non-traditional offi cers.
The injection of minorities into policing through affi rmative
action and other external
mechanisms does not translate into an immediate interpersonal
acceptance from other
offi cers, especially if the offi cer is a black female (Dodge &
Pogrebin, 2001). Female
police offi cers often complain that their entry into a male-
dominated fi eld has met with
continued resistance (see Figure 11.1). Negative attitudes,
comments about their sexual
preferences, hazing, and gender-based harassment make female

offi cers feel that they
are not accepted readily by co-workers (Collins, 2004; Greene
& del Carmen, 2002;
fIGUre 11.1
Defi ning quid pro quo harassment
in the work place.
Loosely translated, quid pro quo means “something for
something.” This type of
harassment occurs when an employee is required to choose
between submitting to
sexual advances or losing a tangible job benefi t. An essential
aspect of quid pro quo
harassment is the harasser’s power to control the employee’s
employment benefi ts.
This kind of harassment most often occurs between supervisor
and subordinate.
A claim of quid pro quo harassment must meet several criteria:
• The harassment was based on sex.
• The claimant was subjected to unwelcome sexual advances.
• A tangible economic benefi t of the job was conditional on the
claimant’s sub-
mission to the unwelcome sexual advances.
Source: Rubin, P.N. (1995). Civil Rights and Criminal Justice:
Primer on Sexual Harassment. Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice, pp. 2. Retrieved on March 7, 2012
from http://socialtransitions.kdid.org/sites/
socialtransitions/fi les/resource/fi les/harassmentNIJ.pdf
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Scourge? 381
Liberman et al., 2002; Morash, Kwak, & Haarr, 2006;
Pendergrass & Ostrove, 1984;
Wexler & Logan, 1983). In fact, some observers view these
activities as engrained in the
male culture that dominates policing (Kraska & Kappeler,
1995).
Black offi cers sometimes express similar reservations and
misgivings (Kroes, 1988a,
pp. 29–65; Kroes, 1988b, pp. 115–118). The actions of fellow

workers do not make them
feel welcomed as police offi cers. As Figure 11.2 explains,
these actions may accumulate
and eventually amount to a civil rights violation.
This discriminatory conduct is illegal. As Figure 11.3
illustrates, Attorney General
Reno considered this matter so vital that she distributed a
memorandum to all Department
of Justice employees making them aware that these
transgressions are not to be tolerated
in the work place.
fIGUre 11.2
Defi ning hostile work environment harassment.
Hostile work environment harassment is unwelcome conduct
that is so severe or
pervasive as to change the conditions of the claimant’s
employment and create
an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.
What distinguishes hostile work environment harassment from
quid pro quo harass-
ment? There are several differences. Hostile work environment
harassment:
• Does not require an impact on an economic benefi t.
• Can involve co-workers or third parties, not just supervisors.
• Is not limited to sexual advances; it can include hostile or
offensive behavior
based on the person’s sex.
• Can occur even when the conduct is not directed specifi cally

at the claimant
but still impacts on his or her ability to perform the job.
• Typically involves a series of incidents rather than one
incident (although a single
offensive incident may constitute this type of harassment).
Three criteria must be met in a claim of harassment based on a
hostile work
environment:
• The conduct was unwelcome.
• The conduct was severe, pervasive, and regarded by the
claimant as so hostile
or offensive as to alter his or her conditions of employment.
• The conduct was such that a reasonable person would fi nd it
hostile or offensive.
Source: Rubin, P.N. (1995). Civil Rights and Criminal Justice:
Primer on Sexual Harassment. Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Justice, pp. 2–3. Retrieved on March 7,
2012 from http://socialtransitions.kdid.org/sites/
socialtransitions/fi les/resource/fi les/harassmentNIJ.pdf
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Organizational Sources
A third signifi cant source of stress can be the police
organization itself. While a num-
ber of stressors may arise here, we will limit discussion to three
of the more common
sources. They include shift work, equipment, and citizen
complaints.
fIGUre 11.3
excerpts from the U.S. attorney General
memorandum on Sexual harassment.
The Supreme Court recently issued three important decisions on
sexual harassment
in the workplace. I want to take this opportunity to reiterate to
all employees that it
has been, and continues to be, the policy of the Department of
Justice to maintain
a work environment that is free from harassment based on race,
color, gender, reli-

gion, national origin, age, disability and sexual orientation. It is
also the policy of this
Department to ensure that no employee is subjected to
retaliation because he or
she has alleged unlawful harassment. Immediate and appropriate
corrective action
will be taken to address any form of harassment.
Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and
other verbal or physi-
cal harassment based on gender by managers, supervisors, or
coworkers violate
the law when:
1. An individual is told (or it is implied) that he or she must
submit to the unwel-
come conduct as a condition of the job;
2. An employment decision affecting the individual is made
because the indi-
vidual submitted to or rejected the unwelcome conduct; or
3. The unwelcome conduct unreasonably interferes with an
individual’s work per-
formance or creates an intimidating, hostile or abusive working
environment.
In addition, unwelcome verbal or physical conduct based on an
employee’s race,
color, religion, national origin, age, or disability is unlawful, if
the conduct unreason-
ably interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates
an intimidating,
hostile or abusive working environment. Furthermore, the
Federal Government will
not tolerate any discrimination on the basis of sexual

orientation.
Appropriate corrective action will be swiftly taken against any
manager, supervisor
or employee who engages in harassment. Likewise, action will
be taken against
supervisors and managers who either condone or fail to act
promptly to correct
harassing conduct brought to their attention.
Source: Reno, J. (1998). Prevention of Harassment in the
Workplace. Washington, DC: Offi ce of the Attorney
General. Retrieved on March 7, 2012 from
http://www.justice.gov/jmd/eeos/agmemo.htm
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Scourge? 383
Shift Work
One complaint that surfaces in police circles is a dislike of the
rotating shift structure.
Most agencies operate on the basis of three shifts per day over a
28-day cycle or some
closely related variant. This schedule means that patrol officers
spend one month work-
ing the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift, or what they call “days.” The next
month brings a switch
to the evening shift, which starts at 3 p.m. and lasts until 11
p.m. Officers spend the third
month doing the “graveyard” or the 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. watch.
While this shift schedule is simple to administer, it wreaks
havoc on the people who
must adjust to it. Most life-styles rotate around a diurnal
pattern, the distinction between
night and day. People go to work during the day and unwind at
night. The human body
has a sensitive set of inner clocks programmed to a 24-hour
cycle—this circadian rhythm
patterns all our physiological functions. One common disruption
to this routine, jet lag,
occurs when a traveler crosses time zones and interrupts the
circadian rhythm to which
the body is accustomed.
Shift work also disrupts this circadian rhythm. Officers work
seven or eight days in
a row on the graveyard shift. The reward is a long weekend of

two or three consecutive
days off from work. Most officers will not maintain the same
sleeping patterns to which
their bodies have become acclimated over the past week or so.
Instead, they will alter
their habits to get back on human time with their families and
friends. While this change
may promote social harmony, the inevitable return back to the
shift structure jolts the
body and creates physical discomfort. Since the court system
runs on a day-time basis,
any subpoenas add another disruption to this schedule. These
constant adjustments
affect one’s appetite and disrupt eating habits. For example, it
is not unusual to find a
shift worker eating a tuna fish sandwich for breakfast at three
o’clock in the afternoon.
The chaos that this type of living arrangement creates requires
adjustments not by
only the individual officer, but also by the entire household.
One police psychologist
(Kroes, 1988b, p. 38) aptly described the herculean task some
spouses face:
The shift worker’s wife must maintain two households—the
normal daytime
schedule for herself and the children and a separate schedule for
her husband.
This is quite taxing on her, as she must prepare separate meal
schedules, coordi-
nate separate sleeping schedules, try to keep the children from
making too much
noise during the day when her husband is asleep, jumping to
answer the phone
on the first ring so as not to disturb her sleeping husband, and

so on. Further,
she must often be alone at night, a condition which might be
quite unsettling for
many women.
Some agencies have modified their scheduling patterns by
introducing fixed or per-
manent shifts, as well as 10- or 12-hour tours of duty. Officers
under these conditions
work a set tour of duty for an extended period of time. The
thinking behind this approach
is that officers who do not have to work a rotating shift are
spared the physiological
upheaval of the traditional monthly switch. In addition, these
officers may be able to avoid
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common sleep disorders associated with shift work (Charles,
Burchfiel, Fekedulegn, Vila,
& Hartley, T.A., et al., 2007; Rajartatnam, et al., 2011). As a
result, officers should feel
healthier. Indeed, there are some indications that officers who
went to a permanent or
longer shift routine reported they felt much better than when
officers on rotating shifts
(Amendola, Weisburd, Hamilton, Jones, & Slipka, 2012;
Graupmann, 1983).
Up until recently, police fatigue has not captured much
attention. Vila and Kenney
(2002) monitored the work logs of one agency and found a
number of officers who, over
the course of a year, averaged 80 hours of regular and overtime
hours per week. They
also reported that two officers averaged over 100 hours per
week and one officer put in
130 hours in a single week! As Vila and Kenney (2002, p. 190)
explain,
the research still is a long way from fully explaining the role
fatigue plays in
police officer accidents, injuries, and citizen complaints—but
the limited data
available suggest that fatigue contributes to these problems.
Prudence suggests
that we take concrete steps to manage police fatigue and better
understand its

causes and circumstances.
Equipment
Another frequent criticism centers on poor or defective
equipment. The patrol car is
the equivalent of an office. It contains all the gear (flashlights,
batons, reflective traffic
vests, briefcases loaded with blank forms, statutes and charging
books, memoranda,
first-aid kits, fire extinguisher, extra ammunition, rain gear,
bio-hazard suits, and so on).
It is frustrating for officers to write reports in 90-degree heat
without sweating on the
forms because the air conditioner is out of commission and then
have a supervisor reject
the report because it looks too sloppy. Night-shift officers
grumble when interior lights
fail to work properly. Now they have to write a report that takes
a half-hour to complete
while holding a flashlight in one hand. There is nothing like the
feeling of driving a
police car at 80 miles per hour only to have the brakes fail or
front wheels and steering
column shimmy from misalignment. As one officer wryly
commented, these “cars won’t
pass safety inspection, yet we have to ride in them” (Kroes et
al., 1974, p. 153).
Citizen Complaints
Perhaps the most pervasive feelings of distrust emerge when
administrators handle cit-
izen complaints regarding officer misconduct or disrespect. In
many instances, com-
manding officers accept anonymous complaints. For example, a
civilian might phone the
watch commander and express misgivings about how a

particular officer handled a call.
Although the citizen did not register a formal complaint with
Internal Affairs, the watch
commander might direct the officer to prepare a written
response. Records are never
destroyed and the officer’s reply gets filed in his or her
personnel folder. No matter how
petty these instances might appear, one should not
underestimate their cumulative effect
on evaluations, transfer requests, and promotional opportunities.
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Scourge? 385
environmental Sources
The police officer’s world is also shaped and constrained by
external or environmental
sources. Some of these elements include the community, the
criminal justice system, and
the constant threat of danger. This section examines each of
these topics.
The Community
Many police officers harbor intense negative feelings toward
some segments of the pub-
lic. Earlier in Chapter 5 we discovered that one of the driving
forces behind the decision
to become a law enforcement officer was the desire to help
other people. Despite all their
good intentions, many officers feel rejected by the very people
they try to help and unap-
preciated (see Figure 11.4). As others (Kroes et al., 1974, pp.
153–154) put it:
The policeman, like any other professional, wants to be
respected for his work.
Under current conditions, however, the policeman receives
negative feedback
from a large segment of the population. Instead of being viewed
as a hero, he is
seen as a corrupt, unfeeling enforcer. The negative image of the
policeman, com-
bined with the public’s apathy over, or even active interference
with, his work,
strongly disturbs the officer’s positive professional self-image.
Some police officers go to great lengths to shield their families
from these pejorative

perceptions. They keep their telephone numbers unlisted, do not
publicize their home
addresses, or change clothes at the station house to avoid
neighbors seeing them in uni-
form (see Figure 11.5 and Figure 11.6). Sometimes these
practices are insufficient insu-
lators. One officer, for example, recounted how his son would
come home from school
crying every day because the other children taunted that his
father was a “pig.” As the
officer put it, “What can I do? I know my son loves me; how
can I tell him the kids don’t
know what they are saying. It eats me up” (Kroes, 1988b, p.
66).
The Criminal Justice System
Even the criminal justice system subjects officers to invidious
treatment. Courts and
lawyers operate on a daytime schedule. Even though the police
department maintains a
rotating shift schedule, officers must find a way to
accommodate themselves to subpoe-
nas for court appearances. Many times officers finish a
graveyard tour at seven in the
morning but have a court case scheduled to begin at nine
o’clock. Because a subpoena
is a binding court order, officers have no choice except to
appear at the appointed hour.
There is no time to unwind in the usual way after a stint on the
streets. Instead, the offi-
cer begins the ritual of showering and dressing out a clean
uniform in order to project a
professional image. Arrival at the courthouse usually translates
into the word “wait.” As
one writer (Kroes, 1988b, pp. 52–53) explains:

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fIGUre 11.4
response from the florida Offi ce of the attorney
General regarding a formal citizen complaint
about parking a marked police car in the
neighborhood.
June 16, 2005
Dear Fellow Floridian:

On behalf of the Town of Davie, you ask substantially the
following question:
Is a marked police vehicle assigned to a law enforcement offi
cer a commercial
vehicle?
According to information provided to this offi ce, a
homeowners’ association in your
town prohibits the parking of commercial vehicles within the
community except
when parked in the garage of a home with the garage door fully
closed. This offi ce
has been advised that the term “commercial vehicle” is defi ned
under the home-
owners’ association rules to “include but not [be] limited to all
automobiles, trucks
and other vehicular equipment including station wagons, which
bear signs or shall
have printed on the sides of same reference to any commercial
undertaking or
enterprise.” A homeowner within the community has been
advised by the home-
owners’ association that the parking of a marked police cruiser
in the homeown-
er’s driveway may violate the above prohibition against
commercial vehicles. The
home-owner is a law enforcement offi cer with the Miami Beach
Police Department
and has been assigned a marked police cruiser which he parks in
his driveway.
A marked police vehicle does not constitute a vehicle with
reference to a com-
mercial undertaking or enterprise. The term “commercial” has
been generally

defi ned as meaning “mercantile; occupied with commerce,
relating to or deal-
ing with commerce . . . derived by commerce or trade; engaged
in trade; having
fi nancial profi t as the primary aim.” The Florida Statutes
contain various defi nitions
of commercial vehicles. Section 320.01(26), Florida Statutes, in
defi ning a “commer-
cial motor vehicle” for purposes of licensure, specifi cally
excludes vehicles which
are owned or operated by a governmental entity. Section
403.413(2)(f), Florida
Statutes, defi nes a “commercial vehicle” as “a vehicle that is
owned or used by a
business, corporation, association, partnership, or sole
proprietorship or any other
entity conducting business for a commercial purpose.” A
“commercial purpose”
is defi ned to mean “for the purpose of economic gain.” In
addition, this offi ce has
been advised that the Davie Town Council has determined that a
police vehicle is
not a commercial vehicle.
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Scourge? 387
An offi cer required to appear for a case which is scheduled on
the court docket
for 9:00 A.M. may actually wait outside the courtroom for four
or more hours
before he is called. This long wait occurs because the judge has
a heavy load of
cases; so, to optimize his time, he schedules several cases for
one period, such
as a morning session, and then goes through the docket, one
case after another,
until he is fi nished. If the cases take longer than expected, the
judge then carries
over into the afternoon session. Meanwhile our poor defender of
peace is left
standing idle till his particular case is called.
Once the judge disposes of the case, the offi cer can go home.
The next task is to
ward off the effects of the caffeinated coffee used to muster an
awakened state and crawl
between the sheets for some sleep. The disrupted resting

pattern, combined with yet
another adjustment to the body’s cycle, translates into a
fatigued offi cer arriving at work
for another graveyard shift. The value of an offi cer in such an
exhausted physical state,
either as a primary or as a back-up offi cer, is questionable.
Quite often, police offi cers come to distrust the criminal justice
system and its repre-
sentatives. Rather than focusing upon factual guilt, the system
emphasizes technical and
procedural aspects. This experience borders on the twilight zone
for some offi cers. The
following excerpt (Doerner, 1985, pp. 397–398) comes from an
offi cer who was locked
fIGUre 11.4 cONt.
The provision of law enforcement services is an integral and
constituent part of gov-
ernment. It is the performance of a governmental duty owed to
the general pub-
lic at large. This offi ce has previously recognized that the
assignment of a police
vehicle to an offi cer to drive during off-duty hours to provide
quicker response when
called to an emergency would be of a direct benefi t to the
public. In addition, the
presence of a police vehicle in a neighborhood may serve as a
deterrent to crime.
Clearly, the provision of law enforcement services does not
constitute a commer-
cial enterprise.
Accordingly, I am of the opinion that a marked police vehicle
assigned to a law

enforcement offi cer does not constitute a commercial vehicle.
Sincerely,
Charlie Crist
Attorney General
Source: Crist, C. (2005). Advisory Legal Opinion 2005-36, Law
Enforcement Vehicle Is Not a Commercial
Vehicle. Tallahassee, FL: Offi ce of the Attorney General of
Florida. Retrieved on March 7, 2012 from http://
www.myfl
oridalegal.com/ago.nsf/Opinions/0D1E173CAF5568FF85257022
0059A538
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fIGUre 11.5
an issueof free pressversus police offi cer
personal privacy.
Cleveland police offi cers must maintain current photograph-
identifi cation cards,
and if the offi cers are not in uniform, they must display the
identifi cation cards on
their clothing when they are in police or local court buildings.
The Photo Unit of the
Cleveland Police Division takes the pictures and prepares the
identifi cation cards,
with new cards typically issued every fi ve years.
The Plain Dealer [a local newspaper] requested that the
Cleveland Police Division
permit it to examine and scan “the identifi cation photographs
of all uniformed
Cleveland police offi cers.” The city denied the Plain Dealer’s
request based on the
city’s claim that “the photographs are not public records under
O.R.C. 149.43 and
release would violate the offi cers’ federal constitutional right
to privacy.”
In December 2002, Cleveland notifi ed the Plain Dealer that it
was establishing a
procedure in which the city would notify individual police offi
cers when the Plain
Dealer requested their photographs and seek written consent

from the offi cers to
release their photographs. Cleveland expressed its concern that
“providing [the
Plain Dealer] with the requested photographs without obtaining
permission from
each individual affected offi cer might constitute a civil-rights
violation” that would
subject the city to “numerous time-consuming and expensive
lawsuits by individual
police offi cers and/or their unions.” The Plain Dealer
questioned the city’s reliance
on constitutional privacy rights because “uniformed offi cers
are visible on the streets
daily, advertising by what they wear that they are police offi
cers.”
Cleveland introduced evidence that its undercover offi cers
come from its ranks of
uniformed police offi cers and that releasing photographs of
uniformed police offi -
cers would jeopardize the city’s ability to perform undercover
work. Therefore, the
exemption protects police and their families and assists the
police in their investiga-
tive functions.
In 1998, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth
Circuit held that police
offi cers have a constitutionally protected privacy right in
information contained in
their personnel fi les, including drivers’ licenses containing
their photographs, which
required the balancing of the interests of the offi cers against
the interests of the city
in releasing that information (Kallstrom v. Columbus (C.A.6,
1998), 136 F.3d 1055,

1063–1064). The court further held that “offi cers are entitled to
notice and an oppor-
tunity to be heard prior to the release of private information
contained in their per-
sonnel fi les only where the disclosure of the requested
information could potentially
threaten the offi cers’ and their families’ personal security.”
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Scourge? 389
in a confrontation where he almost killed an armed suspect, but

withheld fi re, only to
fi nd himself accused of excessive force and stealing money
from the suspect’s wallet:
The prosecutor advised me that he was dropping the charges.
Dropping them!
My blood boiled. Why? The voice at the other end [of the
phone] . . . went on to
explain that the state was dropping all charges and, in return,
the defendant was
dropping the allegations of police brutality and larceny.
According to the voice,
it was an expedient deal. Incredulous, I frothed and foamed, but
the state attor-
ney was not swayed. I went from a situation where I had ample
probable cause
to kill the man to being in the position of defending myself
from an assailant’s
accusations and lost! I was shattered.
fIGUre 11.5 cONt.
In April 1999, we relied on Kallstrom to hold that police offi
cers’ fi les that contain
the names of the offi cers’ children, parents, home addresses,
telephone numbers,
benefi ciaries, medical information, and similar records are
exempt from disclosure
under the Public Records Act by the constitutional right of
privacy.
Therefore, because the plain language of R.C. 149.43(A)(7)(b)
includes police offi -
cer photographs within the exemption for peace-offi cer
residential and familial
information, the city has no duty to provide copies of the

photographs to the Plain
Dealer.
Source: Excerpted from State ex rel. Plain Dealer Publishing
Co. v. Cleveland, 106 Ohio St.3d 70, 2005-
Ohio-3807. Retrieved on March 7, 2012 from
http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/rod/docs/pdf/0/2005/2005-
ohio-3807.pdf
fIGUre 11.6
an example of a state statute exempting law
enforcement offi cers’ personal information from
public disclosure.
The home addresses, telephone numbers, social security
numbers, and photo-
graphs of active or former law enforcement personnel; the home
addresses, tele-
phone numbers, social security numbers, photographs, and
places of employment
of the spouses and children of such personnel; and the names
and locations of
schools and day care facilities attended by the children of such
personnel are
exempt [from public records disclosure].
Source: Florida Statutes 2011, § 119.071.
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Officers often feel morally outraged when the system fails to
punish criminals
who deserve some retribution. This experience becomes even
more frustrating because
instead of generating a deterrent effect, the system allows the
offender to flaunt his or
her criminal success. The impression that this type of verdict
delivers is that cops can be
beaten at their own game because they are not familiar with all
the nuances of criminal
law and court procedure. This contradiction paralyzes or
cripples the threats of arrest
that officers sometimes resort to in order to regulate behavior.
Because the threat of
arrest and punishment has become devalued, officers must find
other meaningful alter-
natives. As one street veteran (Kroes, 1988a, p. 17) explained:

I never did feel bad about being violent, because the only
people that I commit-
ted violence upon were people where that would be the only
way they would get
their justice. There is no justice in the justice system. You
heard it before, they
called it street justice. If you book a guy for robbery, if you can
kick his ass, if
you can make him pay for his crime, that would be the only
place, right there
on the street, because when he gets into court he’s going to be
dressed up, he’s
going to be clean-shaven, he’s going to be talking nice to the
judge. He’s going
to call him Sir instead of . . . .
The Constant Threat of Danger
A key element in police work is the omnipresence of danger.
Although Chapter 10
explained that line-of-duty deaths are relatively infrequent, the
fact of the matter is that
they do take place. As one police instructor noted, “Every one
of those [officers killed]
. . . had one basic thing in common . . . . They all planned on
going home at the end of
their shift” (Kirkham, 1976, p. 22).
As we saw earlier, assaults on police officers, both with and
without injury, are
common. These documented instances do not include occasions
where officers must
yank criminals out of a hiding place. They do not count the
times when officers disarm
potential assailants. There are no figures on how often officers
face dangerous mentally-
ill subjects. There are no statistics kept on how many times

officers travel at high speeds
in vehicles, pluck children out of swirling waters, or rescue
other persons from perilous
situations. Each one of these instances presents a distinct hazard
to the well-being of the
responding officer.
Reminders of danger punctuate the police world. Every time a
law enforcement offi-
cer is slain, the FBI teletypes every agency in the nation. The
grim details are repeated
at the start of shifts everywhere in the hopes of reminding other
officers of their own
vulnerability. Many agencies have a “Hall of Heroes” that
honors fallen comrades. This
passageway is located in such a way that patrol officers walk
through it every day at the
start of a tour of duty. Death is a very real part of police work.
This constant exposure to danger means that police officers
must maintain a ready
state of alertness. In other words, they scan their locations
continuously for any possible
cue of an impending threat in order to prevent an attack. This
incessant preoccupation with
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Scourge? 391
personal safety is quite understandable. The motorist whom an
officer has just stopped
could be an ordinary law-abiding citizen. Or, this person might
be the eleventh criminal
who failed to make the FBI’s “Ten Most-Wanted” list which, as
Figure 11.7 explains, is
no small feat. The civilian parked next to a yellow curb might
be the driver of a getaway
car in a bank heist or a harried office worker. The point here is
that police officers interact
with people whom they have never seen before and do not
know. As a result, officers find
that they must act in ways that may appear to be strange or
unfriendly to outsiders.
One concept introduced earlier in Chapter 5 was the notion of
the “symbolic assail-
ant.” This construct exemplifies some of the very ideas
discussed here. If you recall, the

symbolic assailant describes young minority males in some of
the more run-down areas
of town. Officers who have to deal with persons fitting this
stereotype might appear to be
assuming a somewhat combative, or even hostile, stance. While
we do not condone this
type of behavior, it is quite likely that these officers have
accumulated bad experiences
with similar persons in the past. The amount of emphasis placed
upon danger, coupled
with the officer’s experience, makes such conduct somewhat
more understandable.
The “unknown” comes to be feared by officers who find that
they must make split-
second decisions with a minimal amount of information. This
need to act quickly and
decisively under extraordinarily tense circumstances or risk
being killed underlie the
dismissal of one officer as being psychologically unfit for duty.
This officer was involved
in the pursuit of a vehicle containing two occupants. The officer
saw the passenger shoot
at several officers, killing one and wounding others. When the
suspect vehicle finally
wrecked, the officer rushed to the car. The officer opened fire at
the occupants when he
observed the passenger trying to reload his weapon.
Investigation later revealed that
passenger had taken the driver hostage. In other words, the
driver was dead because the
officer had mistaken him for a suspect. That officer still relives
the funeral to this day in
a recurring nightmare where the hostage’s wife and three
children stand there and stare
at him (Kroes, 1988a, pp. 18–21).

the consequences of police Stress
Stress that accumulates or builds up over a period of time
requires management or cop-
ing tactics. Should it go unattended, stress can consume the
individual. People in law
enforcement circles are becoming more aware of how
debilitating stress can be. Many
agencies were reluctant to even broach this topic in the past.
The feeling was that police
officers were almost super humans who, like robots, could turn
off their own inner feel-
ings and objectively sort through all types of human problems
and misery. Once these
men and women took off their uniforms, they could turn their
emotions back on and
behave as if they had not seen a thing during the previous tour
of duty. Anyone who
could not tolerate this ritual was weak and unfit for service.
The breakthrough came when observers began to realize that
certain systematic
negative outcomes were surfacing over a wide number of
officers. Sick time became
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fIGUre 11.7
the fbI’s “ten most Wanted” list.
What is the purpose of the fbI’s “ten most Wanted
fugitives” program?
The “Top Ten” is a publicity program . . . designed to publicize
particularly dan-
gerous fugitives who might not otherwise merit nationwide
attention. The FBI rec-
ognizes the need for public assistance in tracking fugitives.
how many fugitives have been captured due to public
assistance?
One hundred and fi fty-three of the “Ten Most Wanted
Fugitives” have been
apprehended due to public assistance.
Who actually decides which fugitives go on the
list?

The Criminal Investigative Division (CID) at FBI Headquarters
calls upon all 56 Field
Offi ces to submit candidates for the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted
Fugitives” list. The
nominees received are reviewed by Special Agents in the CID
and the Offi ce of
Public Affairs. The selection of the “proposed” candidate(s) is
then forwarded to
FBI Executive Management for fi nal approval.
On what criteria is that decision made?
First, the individual must have a lengthy record of committing
serious crimes and/
or be considered a particularly dangerous menace to society due
to current
criminal charges.
Second, it must be believed that the nationwide publicity
afforded by the pro-
gram can be of assistance in apprehending the fugitive, who, in
turn, should not
already be notorious due to other publicity.
how many fugitives have been on the list?
As of June 22, 2011, there have been 494 fugitives on the “Ten
Most Wanted
Fugitives” list. Four hundred and sixty-fi ve individuals
appearing on the list have
been located, 153 of them as a direct result of citizen
cooperation.
are thererewards offered for “top ten” fugitives?

At a minimum, a reward of up to $100,000 is offered by the FBI
for information
which leads directly to the arrest of a “Top Ten” fugitive. In
some instances, the
reward amount offered is more than $100,000.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (2012). Ten Most
Wanted Fugitives Program Frequently Asked Ques-
tions. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved
on March 7, 20120 from http://www.fbi.gov/
wanted/topten/ten-most-wanted-fugitives-faq/ten-most-wanted-
fugitives-faq
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Scourge? 393
abused. Officers behaved in a less-than-polite and concerned
fashion. Sometimes, they
even mishandled discretion. Gradually, the realization sank in
that the very people who
were listening to the problems of others had their own set of
concerns. The ravaging
effects of stress were clear.
This section of the chapter visits some of the more typical
manifestations of stress
that police officers experience. While there are many outcomes
associated with this
occupational scourge, our attention focuses on a limited
number. More specifically, the
topics addressed here are confined to disease patterns, alcohol
abuse, suicide, and mari-
tal disharmony.
morbidity and mortality
One frequent suggestion is that stress is linked to morbidity and
mortality patterns.
Researchers use the term morbidity to refer to disease and
sickness. Mortality deals
with the causes of death. Investigators interested in morbidity
and mortality search for
patterns associated with various characteristics. For instance,
they might analyze health
data to determine whether smokers die more often from
respiratory ailments than do
non-smokers. Others might conduct an examination of whether
inhabitants from differ-
ent parts of the country are more susceptible to problems with

diabetes or other diseases.
Another branch of research in this area deals with differences in
morbidity and mortality
by occupation. As we will see, there is some evidence that law
enforcement personnel
contract and succumb to particular disorders more often than do
other work groups.
Police work is very sedentary. Officers sit when filling out
reports. They remain
seated while driving. Suddenly, the radio blares out a call.
Officers quickly jump into
action. The body reacts to these stressful conditions by
producing certain secretions. Time
after time throughout the course of a single shift, the officer
gets startled, becomes angry
and defensive, or experiences other emotional states that trigger
the reaction cycle. When
coupled with shift changes, poor dietary habits, and a lack of
suitable exercise, the body
becomes overloaded. One can anticipate certain health problems
under these conditions.
One way that health researchers document occupational risks is
to analyze death
certificates. Every death in this country is accompanied by a
death certificate. After
reviewing the patient’s history, physical remains, and an
autopsy if necessary, the attend-
ing physician determines the cause of death. The death
certificate also contains such
items as the place of birth, place of death, race, age, and sex of
the deceased, as well as
the person’s last known occupation. This information is used to
analyze morbidity and
mortality patterns.

These death records became a focal point for one research team
(Fell, Richard, &
Wallace, 1980). An examination of death certificates and
hospital records classified
health diagnoses as stress-related or not. The results showed
that police officers had
a shortened life span. In addition, officers were more likely to
die from stress-related
causes than workers in other occupations. The leading causes of
death were circulatory
or heart diseases. In terms of non-fatal diseases, police officers
had a very high hospital
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admission rate for stress-induced disorders. Most of these
illnesses involved digestive
tract maladies like ulcers and colon cancer.
A more recent update discovered similar results (Violanti,
Vena, & Marshall, 1986).
Tracking people who worked in the Buffalo, New York Police
Department for at least fi ve
years during the 1950–1979 period provided extensive health
information. Police offi cers
exhibited a higher death rate from cancer, particularly stomach
types, than one would
expect normally. The death rate from circulatory and heart
diseases went up the longer
a person was a police offi cer. Other studies have found quite
similar results (Reviere &
Young, 1994). In fact, the gap between Florida law enforcement
offi cers and the regular
civilian population is a life span that is shorter by about 12
years for sworn personnel
(Parker, 2011). Being a police offi cer increases the odds of a
premature death. In rec-
ognition of these occupational hazards, the Florida “Heart Lung
Law” (see Figure 11.8)
establishes the presumption law enforcement offi cers who
develop heart disease or hyper-
tension incurred such a condition in the line of duty.
The researchers linked occupational mortality rates back to
eating and dietary pat-
terns. Police offi cers are notorious for their consumption of
fast foods, particularly fried

items, which register a high-fat content. As Figure 11.9
illustrates, offi cers are on-duty
even while they eat. They must monitor radio transmissions and
may have to disrupt a meal
to answer a call. Gulping down food and overindulging in
caffeine products, like coffee or
iced tea, do not help digestion. The sedentary nature of police
work, the chronic produc-
tion of adrenaline, and other stress-related symptoms eventually
combine to take their toll.
alcohol abuse
Police offi cers sometimes rely upon alcohol as a remedy for
two occupationally related
problems. The fi rst hardship concerns the demands of the job,
particularly when dealing
with death or other gruesome cases. The other problem involves
the physical and social
fIGUre 11.8
the florida heartLungStatute.
Any condition or impairment of health of any Florida state,
municipal, county, port
authority, special tax district, or fi re control district fi refi
ghter or any law enforcement
offi cer, correctional offi cer, or correctional probation offi cer .
. . caused by tuber-
culosis, heart disease, or hypertension resulting in total or
partial disability or death
shall be presumed to have been accidental and to have been
suffered in the line
of duty unless the contrary be shown by competent evidence.
However, any such
fi refi ghter or law enforcement offi cer must have successfully
passed a physical

examination upon entering into any such service as a fi refi
ghter or law enforcement
offi cer, which examination failed to reveal any evidence of any
such condition.
Source: Florida Statutes § 112.18 (1)(a).
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Scourge? 395
adjustments that shift work extracts while everyone else is
operating on normal human

time. Both types of alcohol use represent an attempt at self-
medication. The greatest
danger arises when the offi cer becomes dependent upon alcohol
in order to function.
While drinking habits may vary, enough regularities exist for
certain common
features to emerge. There are three general types of imbibers:
the normal drinker, the
alcohol-dependent drinker, and the alcoholic (Dishlacoff, 1976).
The normal drinker
consumes alcohol under typical circumstances. He or she can
skip drinking and not feel
a craving for alcohol. The alcohol-dependent person drinks
daily, but does not consider
himself or herself to be hooked on booze. This type concedes
that they drink too much.
However, there is solace in the hollow belief that he or she can
stop this consumption
whenever he or she wants to quit. The alcoholic is the one who
has lost self-control,
drinks excessively, and fi nds that alcohol now dominates his or
her life.
One common reaction among police offi cers is to hit the bottle
after a particularly
harrowing experience. Most young offi cers fi nd it very
demanding to adjust to the streets.
What they see out in the fi eld contradicts all their upbringing
and values. Good does not
always conquer evil. People beat and try to kill each other for
the most innocuous and
inane reasons. Freak accidents occur. Death whisks away young
promising people with
bright futures stretched before them. There does not appear to
be any rhyme nor reason,

let alone an end, to the tragedies that an offi cer witnesses.
Look, for a moment, at how
one young offi cer reacted after responding to an accident scene
where a child died:
When we arrived, metal and glass were strewn all over the
roadway, radiators
leaking, and blood oozing everywhere. The passenger in one car
was a two-
year-old little girl with almost purple-black lips, no heartbeat,
no respiration. I
frantically administered the CPR technique I had learned a few
weeks earlier.
God, how I did try, but nothing helped. She was dead . . . . I
was relieved from
fIGUre 11.9
policy guidelinesgoverning on-duty meal breaks.
1. With the permission of a supervisor, members may have a
period for meals.
2. Although tasks will not routinely be assigned to a member
during meal periods,
all members are subject to working without a meal period in
emergency or exi-
gent circumstances.
3. Patrol offi cers are responsible for continuous monitoring of
the police radio dur-
ing meal periods or must provide dispatch with a telephone
number where
they can be reached, and shall adhere to other applicable rules
during meal
periods (e.g., time limits).

Source: Lake City Police Department (2011). Number 103:
Rules of Conduct, General Orders Manual. Lake
City, FL: Lake City Police Department. Retrieved on March 8,
2012 from http://www.lcfl a.com/documents/
Police/Rules%20of%20Conduct.pdf
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duty early that night, went home, and cried my way into a
numbing, drunken
stupor. I didn’t know if I could handle being a cop any more. It
hurt too much

(Doerner, 1985, p. 396).
Offi cers sometimes use alcohol in an effort to adjust to shift
work. When the tour
of duty ends, sleep is still far away. Maintaining a constant
state of alertness so as not
to get hurt means that offi cers fi nd themselves still keyed up
when they walk away from
the station house at the end of a shift. Not very many places are
open at one o’clock
in the morning where the offi cer can relax in public. For one
thing, he or she probably
has answered calls at that location in the past. For another,
being out in a public area to
unwind renders the offi cer vulnerable to attack from patrons or
former police clients.
Only two places afford suffi cient refuge for the drinking offi
cer. They are the isolated
confi nes of one’s home or the company of other offi cers. An
offi cer can tranquilize him-
self or herself to sleep safely at either location.
Alcohol use is an occupationally sanctioned coping mechanism
that offi cers use to
decompress from the job or personal woes (Lindsay & Shelley,
2009; Violanti, Slaven,
Charles, Burchfi el, Andrew, & Homish, 2011; Violanti,
Marshall, & Howe, 1985).
However, continued abuse can lead to other problems. One
survey showed that a quarter
of the offi cers reported consuming a daily minimum dosage of
three drinks (Dietrich
& Smith, 1986). A similar estimate of heavy drinking was also
found in another major
department (Kroes, 1988b, p. 133). Other research reveals that
at least half the offi cers

questioned admitted to consuming alcohol while on-duty
(Dietrich & Smith, 1986; Van
Raalte, 1979). When one combines these fi gures with the
number of offi cers reporting
for work in less than optimal shape, the gravity of the problem
grows larger. Armed offi -
cers who are not completely fi t for duty are on patrol, where
they face a mounting set of
frustrations. A vicious cycle is set into motion.
Suicide
Another behavioral manifestation associated with stress is
suicide, the taking of one’s
own life. The constant exposure to suffering, seeing the
atrocities that humans routinely
perpetrate upon one another, and daily fl irtations with danger
and death eventually take
their toll. Police offi cers who have seen more than their fair
share of misery fi nd that they
have exceeded their tolerance levels. One solution is to commit
suicide. More police
offi cers die every year by their own hands than are killed by
criminals (Kroes, 1988b,
p. 133). As Figure 11.10 illustrates, many of the circumstances
behind police suicides
refl ect stressful conditions.
Early studies of police suicide provided ample confi rmation for
the popular notion
that law enforcement personnel exhibit high suicide rates.
Police offi cers in New York
City during the 1930s were found to have higher suicide rates
than other area residents
(Friedman, 1967). A similar fi nding was reported for Wyoming
personnel during the
1960s (Nelson & Smith, 1970). New York City Police

Department members registered
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Scourge? 397
a suicide rate that was more than three times higher than their
English counterparts in
London throughout the 1960s and early 1970s (Heiman, 1975).
Studies comparing 1950 national suicide rates by occupation
unfortunately point to
law enforcement as a leader (Guralnick, 1963). Although the

1985 suicide rate among law
enforcement offi cers is double the national average, the police
suicide rate has declined
to about half of what it was in 1950 (Stack & Kelley, 1994).
Increased salaries, enhanced
recruit qualifi cations, training programs, and a greater
administrative willingness to
implement stress management programs probably share a major
role in this reduction.
More recent studies of police offi cers in several locations confi
rm that police sui-
cide rates are signifi cantly higher than the general population
and exceed virtually every
other occupational grouping (Fell et al., 1980; Hill & Clawson,
1988; Violanti et al.,
1986; Violanti, 2010). On the basis of this evidence, researchers
have reached the con-
clusion that law enforcement offi cers have a signifi cantly
higher-than-average suicide
rate and the highest suicide rate of all the occupations.
Before rushing to accept this conclusion as being defi nitive,
one needs to be aware
of several criticisms. First, it may be that police offi cers are
more adept than others at
using deadly force. With easy and immediate access to fi
rearms, it is hard to determine
whether the police have a higher suicide rate simply because
they are more successful in
their attempts than civilians.
Arthur Niederhoffer, a retired police offi cer who became a
university professor,
points out that many of these studies are outdated now and
contain only a small number

fIGUre 11.10
top 10 reasons for police suicide.
1. Death of a child or spouse.
2. Loss of a child or spouse through divorce.
3. Terminal illness.
4. Responsibility for partner’s death.
5. Killing someone out of anger.
6. Indictment.
7. Feeling all alone.
8. Sexual accusation.
9. Loss of job due to conviction of crime.
10. Being locked up.
Source: Hamilton, M. (2003). Cop Killer. Police: The Law
Enforcement Magazine, 27(5), p. 21.
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of suicide cases (Niederhoffer & Niederhoffer, 1978, pp. 52–
57). While police suicide
data are difficult to obtain, it is important to have more recent
statistics (Heiman, 1975,
pp. 269–270; Josephson & Reiser, 1990).
Finally, the police selection process has become quite elaborate
in recent years. One
possibility is that the introduction of new psychological testing
procedures, coupled
with more thorough background checks and extensive recruit
training programs, leaves
agencies with a sounder pool of officers (Danto, 1981; Dash &
Reiser, 1978). Thus, as
personnel selection becomes more precise, one might very well
expect a reduction in
contemporary police suicide rates.
marital tensions

One opening remark that some academy instructors use when
they broach the topic of
domestic life is very illustrative. The instructor tells the recruits
to look at the person
sitting to their left and then at the one sitting to their right.
Then the instructor drops the
bomb, making the announcement in a hushed tone. Two out of
every three persons sitting
in the recruit class will get a divorce or separate from their
spouses or significant others
over the next three years. Divorce is another personal ravage
associated with police life.
What is it about police work that makes marital difficulties so
routine? One obvi-
ous stumbling block is shift-work. Shift-work requires spouses
to make many personal
and household adjustments (Hageman, 1978; Maynard &
Maynard, 1982; Niederhoffer
& Niederhoffer, 1978; Stenmark, DePiano, Wackwitz, Cannon,
& Walfish, 1982).
Scheduling meals is difficult. Officers are grouchy during the
first few days of a shift
change. It is hard to find an appropriate time to socialize with
neighbors and friends.
Children sometimes go for days without seeing their parent
because he or she is either
sleeping, on duty, working an off-duty job, or at court on a day
off from work. Gradually,
the circle of civilian friends dwindles. Other police officers and
their families, who oper-
ate under similar time constraints, replace the old friends.
The largest stumbling block in the marital adjustment process
are officers them-
selves. The subtle changes that one must undergo in order to

survive on the streets creep
into the home life. People who once were quite outgoing and
sported a happy-go-lucky
attitude become sullen, more tense, and irritable. Many officers,
even those who had
never owned a gun before, now have a weapon close by no
matter where they go, even
while resting in bed (Doerner, 1985, pp. 398; Kirkham, 1976,
pp. 116–117). Eventually,
one forgets to leave the working personality or street demeanor
in the locker room at
the station. Officers begin to bark orders at their children and
spouses and, if questioned,
respond with the authoritative challenge, “Because I said so!”
The resentment that this
type of behavior creates begins to mount, and the only relief
that an officer can find is
the company of other officers. The subcultural secrecy and
solidarity that surrounds the
police world becomes solace. The officer withdraws more and
more from the family at
home. The spouse can sense what is going on, but he or she is
not prepared to handle all
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Scourge? 399
the changes that have invaded the relationship so rapidly. The
net result is marital tension
which, if left unresolved, will consume any relationship.
Some support can be found for the assertion that divorce is a
common feature of
police work. One police psychologist (Kroes, 1988b, pp. 144,
152) contends that half to
three-quarters of all police officers eventually go through a
divorce or a separation from
their marital partners. Other commentators cite rudimentary
evidence or merely repeat
the popular belief that divorce is a prevalent occupational
hazard (Hageman, 1978,
p. 410; Hurrell, Pate, & Kliesmet, 1984; Maynard & Maynard,
1982, pp. 48–49; Stenmark
et al., 1982, p. 229).
These allegations have not gone unchallenged (McCoy &
Aamodt, 2010). Some
police psychologists caution that the perception of high divorce

rates among police offi-
cers may not be completely accurate. “There are few, if any,
published studies which
indicate that law enforcement officers have high divorce rates;
however, it is a frequently
expressed belief ” (Stratton, Tracy-Stratton, & Alldredge, 1982,
p. 297).
The persistence of this opinion led the Niederhoffers to conduct
a large-scale review
of the literature and a national survey of police agencies. The
returns corroborated their
suspicions. Divorce is not as rampant among police officers as
some observers think.
The Niederhoffers (1978, p. 170) finally concluded:
Grafted onto law enforcement ideology as a defense mechanism
to explain the
charges of an extraordinarily high divorce rate, this widely held
opinion popular-
izes the hypothesis that police work with its corroding stress is
ultimately destruc-
tive to the marital relation. But our analysis, based on a review
of the available
research on police divorce and the results of our own survey of
police depart-
ments representing 50,000 law enforcement personnel,
contravenes the prevalent
assumption that divorce is an occupational hazard of police
work. Weighing the
evidence, we conclude that the rate of divorce for the police
occupation as a
whole rises no higher than the average level of divorce in the
United States.
another Outlook on police Stress

Many observers have jumped on the police stress bandwagon.
These people quickly
embraced the claim that law enforcement is one of the most, if
not the most, stressful
occupations. However, a handful of researchers remained
skeptical. They argued that the
portrayal of police work as highly stressful did not have a firm
basis in sound scientific
research (Anson & Bloom, 1988; Malloy & Mays, 1984;
Pendleton, Stotland, Spiers, &
Kirsch, 1989; Somodevilla, 1978, p. 21; Terry, 1983; Terry,
1985, pp. 503–504; Webb
& Smith, 1980). If law enforcement is not as stressful as some
people would lead us to
believe, then how do we account for the image that policing is a
very demanding job?
One scholar suggests that the discussion of police stress needs
to be recast in a
slightly different light. Terry (1985) argues that police stress
must be understood within
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the context of a professionalization strategy. Law enforcement
is in the midst of many
changes. Entrance requirements are becoming stiffer. Recruits
are coming in with higher
educational levels. Training is more intensive. In order to keep
salaries lucrative, the
police need to change their public image.
The depiction of police stress as stemming from dedicated
personal involvement
is a convenient status-enhancing vehicle. It is an attempt to cast
law enforcement in as
positive a light as possible. The purpose behind this strategy is
to persuade the public
that policing is much more than just a job. It is a vocation that
extracts many sacrifi ces.
In order to accomplish this transformation, the public must
become convinced that both
police offi cers and their work are unique and valuable.
The crime control function offers one way to manage this
impression. Periodic sta-
tistical reports, favorable newspaper stories, visible patrol
tactics, such as leaving a card

notifying the storekeeper of a premises check during the night,
crime prevention pro-
grams, and enhanced technology convey the image of an ever
ready and highly capable
army deployed to combat crime. The physical danger associated
with the mission of
protecting law-abiding citizens also elevates the police to the
position of being effective,
trustworthy, and dedicated.
Changes in the police role have seen an additional emphasis
upon order-mainte-
nance and service delivery. The police shoulder these
responsibilities because they are
the only public agency available on a continuous 24-hours-a-
day, seven-days-a-week,
365-days-a-year basis. As a result, many subsidiary functions
come their way unsolic-
ited. For example, offi cers may offer advice in landlord-tenant
civil disputes. They res-
cue stranded motorists. They make death notifi cations. All
these tasks go far beyond the
narrow crime-fi ghting mandate and make the community rely
more upon police offi cers.
What all these efforts boil down to is a strategy to win public
sympathy. Stress and
its outcomes become equated with the incalculable sacrifi ces
that conscientious and
dedicated men and women make to help the less fortunate. The
price of doing good often
brings one to the precarious edge of self-destruction. Seen in
this way, the police stress
hypothesis is a potent propaganda device. For a variety of
reasons, however, it has not
achieved its full effect. As we will see in Chapter 13, the aura

of professional recognition
continues to elude law enforcement. Professor Terry (1985, p.
509) sizes up the situation
in this way:
police stress plays a positive symbolic role by creating a
professional self-image
within police work. Every occupation, indeed every work group,
needs some
image of itself, in order to infuse its work with a sense of
meaning and purpose.
The emphasis in police work on danger, maintaining order,
service, stress, and
professionalism, does just that. The concept of stress, in
particular, provides a
tidy symbolic representation of the crime control and order
maintenance func-
tions of police work as well as providing a ready link to other
professional occu-
pations that bear responsibility for other people’s lives.
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Scourge? 401
fIGUre 11.11
tribute or merely a professionalization strategy?
Our Nation’s public safety offi cers are heroes who risk their
lives to keep our families
and communities safe. Each of these brave men and women goes
to work not
knowing what dangers might lie ahead, making tremendous
sacrifi ces to uphold
justice and protect the innocent. This week, we extend our
gratitude for their service
to our country. We also remember those killed in the line of
duty, and we mourn their
loss and honor the loved ones they left behind.
Our law enforcement personnel are dedicated to the
communities they serve, work-
ing tirelessly to transform neighborhoods across our country.
Despite facing budget
constraints and daily threats, public safety offi cers embrace
innovative approaches
to improving our Nation and upholding the rule of law.
Public safety offi cers put their lives on the line to protect ours,

sometimes making
the ultimate sacrifi ce. One death is too many, and every death
is an unfathom-
able loss to the offi cer’s family, colleagues, and community. In
the past year, we
have seen a tragic wave of police offi cer fatalities, and have
mourned the loss
of too many public safety offi cers. This year also marks 10
years since the tragedy
of September 11. We will always remember the selfl ess
courage shown by police
offi cers, fi re fi ghters, and fi rst responders in New York City,
Pennsylvania, and at the
Pentagon who rushed into unknown dangers to save the lives of
others. Their ser-
vice—and the service of all who have worn the badge—will
never be forgotten.
As we commemorate Peace Offi cers Memorial Day and Police
Week, we honor the
discipline and distinction our peace offi cers have shown in
conditions we can only
imagine. They are continually called upon to remain vigilant
and take courageous
action. As a country, we promise to stand beside our public
safety community and
do our part to help keep America safe and secure.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America,
do hereby proclaim May 15, 2011, as Peace Offi cers Memorial
Day and May 15
through May 21, 2011, as Police Week.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirteenth day of May, in

the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the
Independence of the United
States of America the two hundred and thirty-fi fth.
BARACK OBAMA
Source: Excerpts taken from Obama, B. (2011). Presidential
Proclamation—Peace Offi cers Memorial
Day and Police Week. Washington, DC: The White House.
Retrieved on March 8, 2012 from http://www.
whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/13/presidential-
proclamation-peace-officers-memorial-day-
and-police-week
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Stress management
Stress management refers to any attempt to control or to reduce
the amount of stress a
person experiences. Stress management generally takes one of
three forms. First, one
can eliminate the source of stress. Second, one can learn how to
cope more effectively
with stress. Third, people can receive help and overcome the
stress they are enduring.
This part of the chapter discusses each of these three
management strategies.
eliminating Stressors
The most thorough and effective way to reduce stress is to
eliminate its source. This
approach, of course, assumes three points: that stress is a
problem, that it is possible to
identify stressors accurately, and that one can manipulate these
stressors.
The real diffi culty may come in getting recognition of the
problem. As mentioned
earlier, there is a common perception in police circles that some
diffi culties just come
with the turf. It is up to the individual to make the appropriate
adjustment. As a result,
one interventionist (Cherniss, 1980, p. 159) warns, “If
supervisors and administrators
minimize the problem, if they are not aware of the negative
effects of burnout for staff,
clients, and agencies, and if they do not realize the extent to
which the structure of the

work setting contributes to the problem, then little can be done
to alleviate job stress and
burnout in a setting.”
One common organizational stressor is rotating shifts. Some
agencies have taken
steps to reduce this irritation by starting permanent or fi xed
shifts. Instead of chang-
ing monthly, offi cers keep the same schedule for three or six
months. At the end of
that period, offi cers move to another shift with stable hours for
a similar three- or six-
month period. This pattern allows offi cers to plan outside
activities far in advance. It also
reduces the fatigue associated with sleep and dietary
adjustments. Figure 11.12 offers
further suggestions for agencies to consider.
Another common stressor is the lack of coordination between
work assignments and
court scheduling. Sometimes offi cers fi nish a shift early in the
morning only to face a
subpoena for two or three hours later. The offi cer often arrives
at court only to wait hours
for the case to begin.
Many locales recognize that the criminal justice system
sometimes penalizes par-
ticipants (Doerner & Lab, 2012). People come to court only to fi
nd that the lawyers have
canceled the proceedings and have forgotten to notify the
witnesses. To avoid this type
of unpleasantness, many prosecutors have formed witness
management units.
The goal here is to reduce witness mishandling. One can call the

prosecutor’s offi ce
the night before and fi nd out if the case is proceeding as
scheduled or has had a post-
ponement. Another courtesy is stand-by status. Here the offi cer
provides a phone num-
ber and promises to appear in court within an hour after being
notifi ed. In this way, the
offi cer does not have to spend a sleepless day at the courthouse
waiting to testify while
the deliberations plod on and on.
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Scourge? 403
Rookie police offi cers often receive an abrupt and rude
introduction to the job. If
these trained offi cers have trouble sorting through these
elements, then how can untrained
spouses understand what is taking place? Some agencies have
inaugurated programs for
police spouses. These sessions familiarize the other half with
the agency, patrol work,
fi rearms safety, and typical stressors that police families face.
Ride-along sessions,
where the spouse accompanies the offi cer on patrol, help him
or her see what police
work is like and better understand the emotions that offi cers go
through. This hands-on
approach makes offi cers more confi dent that they have a
sympathetic ear at home.
One requirement for this approach to work is that the stressor
must be controllable.
Unfortunately, one cannot erase all police stressors. One
investigator (Sewell, 1983)
fIGUre 11.12
What can agencies do about police
offi cer fatigue?
At a minimum, the existing research suggests four steps every
police agency can
take to assess the extent to which fatigue puts its offi cers and
the community they
serve at risk:
• Review policies that affect overtime, moonlighting, the
number of consecutive

work hours a person can work. Make sure the policies keep shift
rotation to a
minimum and give offi cers adequate rest time. The
Albuquerque (N.M.) Police
Department, for example, prohibits offi cers from working more
than 16 hours a
day and limits overtime to 20 hours per week.
• Give offi cers a voice in decisions related to their work hours
and shift scheduling.
People’s work hours affect every aspect of their lives.
Increasing the amount
of control and predictability in one’s life improves a host of
psychological and
physical characteristics, including job satisfaction.
• Formally assess the level of fatigue offi cers experience, the
quality of their sleep,
and how tired they are while on the job, as well as their
attitudes toward fatigue
and work hours issues.
• Create a culture in which offi cers receive adequate
information about the
importance of good sleep habits, the hazards associated with
fatigue and shift
work, and strategies for managing them.
• Review recruit and in-service training programs to determine
if offi cers are receiv-
ing adequate information about the importance of good sleep
habits, the haz-
ards associated with fatigue and shift work, and strategies for
managing them.
Source: Vila, B. (2009). Sleep Deprivation: What Does It Mean

for Public Safety Offi cers? National Institute of
Justice Journal, 262, pp. 29. Retrieved on March 8, 2012 from
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffi les1/jr000248d.pdf
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developed a “critical life events scale” to inventory disturbing
incidents that offi cers
face. The events that offi cers found to be most stressful were
those situations over which
the offi cer had very little, if any, control. The most stressful
events all involved violence.

They dealt with the death of another offi cer in the line of duty
or having to shoot a
suspect. Very little can be done to suppress or erase these
sources of stress (Karlsson &
Christianson, 2006). Thus, there is a genuine need for other
avenues to handle the reduc-
tion of stress.
Learning to cope
The recognition that some sources of stress are beyond one’s
control and defy elimina-
tion has led to efforts designed to minimize their impact. Two
general approaches are
germane here. They include physiological training and
psychological techniques. While
some programs combine these two aspects, they will be
presented separately for the sake
of discussion.
The physiological approach is a preventative form of coping.
Adopting appropri-
ate sleep patterns is an important way to ward off the
devastating effects of fatigue
(see Figure 11.13). Aerobic exercises, such as jogging or
swimming, promote physical
fIGUre 11.13
What can members do about police
offi cer fatigue?
• Stay physically fi t. Get enough exercise, maintain a healthy
body weight, eat
several fruits and vegetables a day, and stop smoking.
• Learn to use caffeine effectively by restricting routine intake
to the equivalent of

one or two eight-ounce cups of coffee a day.
• Exercise proper sleep hygiene. In other words, do everything
possible to get
seven or more hours of sleep every day. For example, go to
sleep at the same
time every day as much as possible; avoid alcohol just before
bedtime; use room
darkening curtains; make your bedroom a place for sleep, not
for doing work or
watching TV.
• If you have not been able to get enough sleep, try to take a nap
before your
shift.
• If you are frequently fatigued, drowsy, snore or have a large
build, ask your doc-
tor to check you for sleep apnea.
Source: Vila, B. (2009). Sleep Deprivation: What Does It Mean
for Public Safety Offi cers? National Institute
of Justice Journal, 262, pp. 29–30. Retrieved on March 8, 2012
from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffi les1/
jr000248d.pdf
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Scourge? 405
fi tness. Other views emphasize nutrition and abstention from
tobacco. In fact, as Fig-
ure 11.14 shows, Massachusetts law prohibits law enforcement
offi cers from using
tobacco products, both on-duty and off-duty. These efforts
combat heart and lung dete-
rioration, and aim to maintain suitable body weight and
cholesterol levels to prevent
cardiopulmonary disease (Axelberd & Valle, 1981; Quire &
Blount, 1990). The thinking
here is that exercise and a proper diet promote general fi tness
and well-being. It is hoped
that these goals will insulate offi cers from tension and its
debilitating long-term effects
(O’Neill, Hanewicz, Fransway, & Cassidy-Riske, 1982).
The psychological approach to stress management involves
stress inoculation. Stress
inoculation teaches people to recognize the signs of oncoming

stress and to counter with
relaxation techniques. Some counselors employ bio-feedback to
sensitize offi cers to such
common signs of stress as increased heartbeat, rising body
temperature, headaches, and
muscle tension. Once a person realizes that such physical
changes are taking place, he
or she can begin personal relaxation techniques immediately.
These tools might include
breathing exercises, stretching to increase blood circulation,
turning on one’s favorite
music, or visualizing pleasant thoughts (Somodevilla, Baker,
Hill, & Thomas, 1981). No
matter what form of adaptation the individual selects, the goal
is the same. That is, the
person controls the adverse stimulation by replacing it with
proven positive blockages.
reaching Out
One recent trend in police agencies is the provision of
counseling services to help offi -
cers rebuild themselves after being victimized by stress. Most
departments already rec-
ognize the extreme condition known as post-shooting trauma.
Post-shooting trauma
refers to the internal turmoil and emotional aftermath offi cers
face after being involved
in a justifi able homicide. The shock of the event, as well as the
second-guessing about
how the offi cer might have resolved the situation differently,
are pervasive.
fIGUre 11.14
massachusetts bans the use of tobacco products
by law enforcement offi cers.

Subsequent to January fi rst, nineteen hundred and eighty-eight,
no person who
smokes any tobacco product shall be eligible for appointment as
a police offi cer or
fi refi ghter in a city or town and no person so appointed after
said date shall contin-
ue in such offi ce or position if such person thereafter smokes
any tobacco products.
The personnel administrator shall promulgate regulations for the
implementation of
this section.
Source: Chapter 41, Section 101A, Massachusetts General Laws
2011. Retrieved on March 8, 2012 from
http://www.malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVII
/Chapter41
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Most agencies automatically relieve an officer involved in a
shooting incident from
active duty. These officers also must surrender their service
weapons and undergo inter-
rogation as part of the ensuing homicide investigation. Besides
feeling like a suspect,
officers involved in a shooting incident find that they must
make adjustments after the
administrative concerns are over. It is not uncommon for such
officers to experience a
roller coaster of emotions after the event ends. In addition to
the understandable fears
and anxieties, many officers have nightmares where they relive
the incident, flashbacks
where they dramatically see the call, depression, and feelings of
isolation. As a result,
many agencies will not allow an officer involved in a shooting
situation to return to
active duty until after he or she receives a clearance from a
psychologist or a therapist.
Many agencies have hired a psychologist or have established a
protocol with local
psychologists to help identify problem officers. As Walker and
his colleagues (2001,
p. 1) explain, “a truism among police chiefs is that 10 percent
of their officers cause
90 percent of the problems.” As a result, over half the city and
county law enforcement

agencies have an early warning program in place to identify
problem-prone employees
and mark them for participation in employee counseling
(Hickman & Reaves, 2006a,
2006b). An early warning program relies upon officer mishaps
(citizen complaints, traf-
fic accidents, involvement in more than usual use-of-force
incidents, disciplinary actions,
etc.) to identify officers who may be experiencing some
difficulties in their lives (Walker,
Alpert, & Kenney, 2000). As Figure 11.15 shows, the goal of an
early warning program is
to provide better access to mental health services in an effort to
prevent future problems.
Although these attempts are noble, they meet with considerable
resistance from
rank-and-file officers. Police officers are cynical and distrustful
of outsiders. The occu-
pation fosters a sense of belonging among officers and isolation
from outsiders. Officers
become well-trained in the pitfalls of leaving a paper trail. Even
when promised that
their records will remain anonymous, officers still harbor deep-
seated suspicions. They
fear that somehow counseling records could surface and haunt
them for the remainder
of their careers.
Even though agencies guarantee members that their sessions
with agency-affiliated
counselors will remain confidential, officers are aware of the
sweeping powers of sub-
poenas and court orders. Advocates counter that the
psychologist-patient connection is
a privileged relationship and, thus, is protected from external

intrusion. But, officers
sense a lack of control since they are not billed directly for
services rendered. As a result,
many police officers find it more comfortable to hide their so-
called weaknesses from
the agency. If money and circumstances permit, they might visit
a private counselor. As
one well-intentioned counselor (Graf, 1986, p. 185) recalls:
While I was waiting I spoke with one of the police officers who
happened by.
During our conversation I asked him what he thought the
chances were of a
police officer going to see a counselor, if one were available.
His answer was
“Zero, unless he had his office in the Ingraham!” (a local
drinking establish-
ment frequented by police officers).
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fIGUre 11.15
an example of policy guidelinesregarding
an earlywarning program.
purpose
The primary goal of the Early Intervention Program is to
improve and maintain
employee performance. This written directive is intended to
benefi t police employ-
ees and assist police supervisors and managers in identifying
personnel whose per-
formance warrants review. Where appropriate, intervention may
be necessary in
circumstances that may have negative consequences for the
employee, cowork-
ers, the Department, the University, or for the general public.
Incidents to be considered in threshold count
The following activities/incidents shall be considered in
identifying department
employees who may require agency intervention efforts:
1. Complaints lodged against employees in accordance with
provisions in UTPD,

University of Texas System, and University of Texas at
directives, or statements of
policy and/or procedures on investigation of employee
misconduct, to include:
a. Complaints (internal and external)
b. Summary disciplinary actions taken against an employee by
a supervisor,
with or without a formal complaint
2. Use-of-Force reports
3. Performance based and related information to include but
not limited to the
following:
a. Fleet Collisions
b. Pursuits
c. Offi cer reports of resisting arrest and obstruction
d. Time and attendance issues.
activation
The Early Intervention Program shall activate when an
employee has:
1. Two or more sustained complaints of misconduct within a
calendar year.
2. Three or more complaints of misconduct within a calendar
year.

3. Three or more complaints of misconduct of the same nature
in two consecutive
calendar years.
4. Two or more fl eet collisions or incidents within a calendar
year.
5. Any use of force incident determined to be not appropriate.
Source: University of Texas at Austin Police Department
(2007). Policy B-28: Early Warning Intervention, UTPD
Policy Manual. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin.
Retrieved on March 8, 2012 from http://www.utexas.
edu/police/manual/b28.html
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