Stressful and Traumatic Experiences of Police Officers - Paper Example

Chapter One

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Introduction

Evidence show that law enforcement organizations rank among the top most stressful occupations in the world. Jaramillo, Nixon, and Sams (2005) ranked policing among the five leading occupations a far as stress and trauma are concerned. Law enforcement officers have to deal with complicated issues on a daily basis. Dealing with issues such as domestic abuse, fatal vehicle accidents, murder, and injuries tends to bring acute stress to the police officers (Jaramillo et al., 2005).A considerable number of scholars agree that the stressors associated with law enforcement are inevitable; therefore, it is a matter of equipping the security personnel with the psychological support that will assist them cope with the man stressors (Lennings, 1997; Karlsson & Christianson, 2006; Moad, 2011). The inability of the officers to control the situations causes difficulties in attempting to recover from the trauma they face. In an effort to solve the seemingly serious problem, US security agencies have introduced several Critical Incidence Response Programs (CIRPs) to assist such officers to cope with the stress and trauma associated with their career. Despite the presence of such programs, police officers have continued to suffer from traumatic and stressful events. Therefore, there is a need to examine how the effectiveness of critical incidence response programs in assisting police officers recover from traumatic events and cope with the many stressors associated with their career. In doing, so it will be possible to bridge the gap of knowledge and provide recommendations on how to improve the programs.

Background of the Problem

Police officers often experience traumatic events at a greater frequency than an average citizen (Violanti et al., 2007; Colwell, Lyons, Bruce, Garner, & Miller, 2011). The constant exposure to traumatic events is due to the threats of violence, tragic, danger, and unpredictable situations associated with policing. While conducting their duties, these officers experience considerable amount of stress due to the dangerous nature of their duties and the high likelihood of losing their colleagues in the line of duty. Stressors during the course of their working day including human tragedies such as domestic abuse, child abuse, fatal vehicle accidents, murder, and even the injury or loss of coworkers (Karlsson & Christianson, 2006). These stressors can often be sudden and unexpected leaving the officer feeling emotionally overwhelmed and physically exhausted (Miller, 2006; Blumenstein, Fridell, & Jones, 2012; Chae & Boyle, 2013). Law enforcement officers are not limited to stress on the job it to encompass high divorce rates, alcoholism, suicide and other physical as well as mental health issues (Nanavaty, 2015). In yet another study, Cortez (2014) revealed that police officers have to endure a distinct source of stress that mostly leads to traumatic events later in their career life.

Researchers have continued to raise alarm concerning the manner in which police officers handle stress and trauma (Iwasaki, Mannell, Smale, & Butcher, 2002; Violanti et al., 2007; Lindsay, Banks, & Shelley, 2008; Violanti et al., 2011). For instance, Lindsay et al. (2008) reported high cases of alcohol abuse among police officers as a way of dealing with work-related stress. In yet another study, Violanti et al. (2011) revealed a close relationship between traumatic events and police indulgence in alcoholism. This finding supported a previous survey by Dowling, Moynihan, Genet, and Lewis (2006), which showed that 20% of the police officers interviewed met the criteria for drug abuse. In a more recent study, Valentine, and Oehme (2015) indicated how stressed or traumatized police officers experience high rates of substance abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence, heart attack, ulcers, and suicide. Other multiple studies also linked suicide cases with policing-related stress and trauma (Violanti, 1997; Violanti, 2004; Loo, 2003; Spath, 2014). The evidence by Violanti (1997) provides a clear indication that suicide among police officers is not new but a problem that has been persisting for decades. In a meta-analysis involving 101 studies, Loo (2003) examine the many studies on suicide tendencies among police officer. The meta-analysis provide a clear indication that many researchers agree in unison that trauma and stress leads to higher suicide rates among police officers. Marzuk, Nock, Leon, Portera, and Tardiff (2002) examined suicide cases among New York police officers from 1977 to 1996. The study revealed that female police officers had higher risk of committing suicide than female residents in the city. However, the study revealed that the suicide cases among male police officers were comparable to the suicide cases among male residents in the city. In more recent study, Chae and Boyle (2013) revealed that 94% of suicides among New York City police officers involve their firearms. Tellingly, the situation has worsened since more cases of suicide are now reported than before.

Critical Incident Response Programs (CIRPs) are becoming more frequent within local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies; the participants and or members of these groups are generally all law enforcement personnel and have experience in the field of law enforcement yet their experience in treating those who have actually been exposed to a traumatic event has been limited to their trauma. The preparation for crisis intervention is viewed a cost effective means to approach crisis response situations (Dyregrov, 1997). Members of the Critical Incident Response programs continue in their daily duties; however, they are on call to respond to situations twenty-four hours seven days a week. With the long hours these individuals work on a daily basis, and the limited time they have to train as CIRP members I wonder how able one can be if and when they are called upon to respond to those individuals in need.

Evidently, the very same officers who have sworn to protect and serve the community are having work-related problems that threaten their emotional health (Haarr & Morash, 1999; McCarty, Zhao, & Garland, 2007). The inability of police officers to deal with stressful situations brings the many problems that worsen the already serious situation. The observation of previous suicides can be observed by researching the following variables of the officers suicide, date of suicide, location of suicide, department, age, rank, time on the job, means of suicide, circumstances leading to the suicide, emotional state of the officer prior to the event, knowledge of previous traumatic experiences (Violanti, 2008; Gumani, Fourie, & Terre, 2013). Law enforcement officers have been trained to respond to these situations; however, they have not been trained as to how to handle the emotions from witnessing such violent acts. Their inability to answer to situations may be the attributed from a swinging shift work, pending retirement fears, negative public perceptions if law enforcement officers and their purpose, unsupportive management, and physical ailments.

Law enforcement critical incidences that lead to trauma include:

Dealing with accident victims or engaging in vehicle crashes leading to injury or death of citizens or an officer (Karlsson & Christianson, 2006).

Finding oneself in a shooting incident in line of duty involving police officers and criminals leading to the injury of death of a colleague (Anderson, Litzenberger, & Plecas, 2002).

When an officer becomes a victim of a felonious assault by armed groups or lone criminals (Karlsson & Christianson, 2006).

Serious injuries or death of suspects in the custody of the police leading to self-blame (Karlsson & Christianson, 2006).

Statement of the Problem

While law enforcers are busy maintaining order, it is evident that they undergo stressful experiences on daily basis. According to Anderson (2001), the scholars have to seek solutions to assist the police officers to deal with the stress and the trauma since it is not possible to prevent stressors. Sadly, it remains unclear what predisposed tools are effective in assisting law enforcement officers to allow them deal with emotional issues at the personal level. The ability of police officers to cope with the traumatic experiences in their line of duty is still questionable. Experts are raising concerns regarding the ability of police officers to instinctively know how to react in stressful situations that they have to face every day. According to Moad (2011), the crime and violence that an average police officers sees in a week is the same as what an average American sees in his or her entire lifetime. In an earlier study, Anderson et al. (2002) had raised a similar argument in their study aimed at evaluating the amount of stress that officers undergo while maintaining law and order. According to Anderson et al. (2002), the acute stressors associated with policing are usually beyond the realm of normal human reaction to stressful situations. As Moad (2011) suggested, the critical situations are sudden since the law enforcer must make quick decisions and act on multiple security incidents that are equally dangerous.

Moad (2011) blames the culture of policing that makes it difficult for the society to recognize that police officers are just humans who are capable of experiencing trauma. Blumenstein, Fridell, and Jones (2012) agreed with Moad (2011) that the organizational culture of security agencies makes it difficult for security personnel to seek assistances from their colleagues. In most workplaces, the Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) assist workers to cope with personal, family or work-related challenges (Donnelly, Valentine, & Oehme, 2015). The idea behind EAPs is to assist employees work efficiently and maintain healthy work life throughout the careers. Donnelly et al. (2015) conducted a survey to determine the level of awareness of EAPs among law enforcers in the United States. The study, which involved 934 participants, revealed that 56% of the respondents were aware of the programs (Donnelly et al., 2015). However, 33% of the law enforcement officers admitted that they were not using the programs or were not ready to use the EAPs (Donnelly et al., 2015). According to Naz, Gavin, Khan, and Raza (2014), it is important to understand the attitudes and trends that influence the decision of law enforcement officers to seek psychological support when they come across traumatic events. Although Naz et al. (2014) admits that the psychological stress resulting from policing is inevitable, they believe that preparedness and appropriate support reduces the vulnerability and the risks associated with such events....