The Echoes of Violence in the Police Family
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JOB STRESS AND THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER

Police work is highly stressful and is one of the few occupations where an employee continually faces the inherent danger of physical violence and the potential of sudden death. The police officer is continuously subjected to cruelty and aggression and is often called upon to make critical life and death decisions within seconds. Situational crises and traumatic experiences often wreak havoc with an officer's emotions. Being shot at, almost killed, viewing and handling dead, mangled bodies, dealing with abused and battered children or sexually molested children all exact a high toll on the police officer.

No other occupation so completely affects, not just the officer, but his or her family as well. All too often the police officer's life becomes chaotic and unmanageable. While it is easier to quantify the number of physical injuries and deaths as a result of police work, it's not so easy to enumerate the number of broken homes, broken hearts, and broken lives that are the direct result of the emotional toll on officers and their families.

Stress is naturally inherent to a police officer's job. During parts of any given shift he or she may simply be in a state of low-level readiness or "hypervigilance" patrolling a sector while monitoring assigned radio frequencies. Suddenly, an emergency call comes in and the officer responds totally with adrenaline racing, heart pounding, blood pressure rising, body tensing for action - ready for the challenge of what may follow. When the emergency is over, he can turn off his vehicle's emergency equipment but he cannot turn his body off. The "fight or flight" response, nature's way of dealing with stressful situations, continues to thunder. There may be no time to recover from this state of "alarm" before a second and third emergency occurs. This leads to exhaustion since the body cannot continuously be in a state of readiness. All too often, the police officer remains in a state of exhaustion for long periods of time. This physical and mental exhaustion leads to a less effective officer.

Unrelieved stress can result in high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, chronic headaches, gastric ulcers, depression, aggression, irritability and burn-out. Burn-out is a progressive process of fatigue, lethargy and depleted personal resources marked by physical and emotional exhaustion, negative job attitude, and a loss of concern for the people you are supposed to be helping. It is caused by excessive and continued demands on one's energy and resources.

The police profession is plagued with "burn-out." Job-related stressors such as shiftwork, hypervigilance, poor nutrition, work overload, unpredictability, responsibility for people, and ongoing contact with stress carriers all lend themselves to high "burn-out."

Police officers respond on a "routine" basis to situations which are "emergencies" to those outside law enforcement. On the job, Police officers must suppress the natural human emotions such as fear, anger, horror, or sadness. This "image armor" that the officer wears "on duty" is very difficult to shed at the end of a shift.

A "burned-out" officer is not only a non-productive member of the department but also a human being in pain - perhaps a father and husband or mother and wife who becomes incapable of filling these roles effectively. "Burn-out" is a very counter-productive way of coping with occupational stress. The officer's coping mechanisms are no longer healthy and soon may include projection (blaming others), withdrawal, and detachment.

Officers are at high risk for developing negative coping behaviors such as gambling, overeating, smoking, spending sprees and excessive drinking. Instead of coping directly and internally with feelings of alienation by talking about them, emotions are hidden away. This psychological withdrawal from work and personal life is in response to excessive stress - moving from an attitude of empathy to apathy. All of these symptoms are a cry for help. It is encouraging to note that "burn-out" is treatable through intervention, education, and prevention.

Traits that make for a good police officer aren't necessarily conducive to being a good family man or woman. Paranoid traits are healthy on the job - crucial even. However, the same behavior at home drives spouses and children away. So often wives recount how their husbands have changed: "We never talk anymore. He's always so angry. He won't talk to me about his feelings." Recently, one officer told me that after 15 years on the Department and two marriages, he doesn't feel anything - no pain, no happiness, no sadness. He asked, "What do you do when you just feel numb?" Let us now turn to several specific stressors encountered by law enforcement personnel. The stressors that seem to effect the greatest psychological damage are unique and segregate the officer from the rest of society.

WORK OVERLOAD VERSUS WORK STAGNATION

It has often been said that policing is "hours of boredom interrupted by moments of terror." While that may have been true at one time, it is not true today in cities like Washington, DC. Officers are called upon to respond to one emergency call after another with few breaks to rest. This requires that the officer be in a state of constant readiness or "hypervigilance." The need for police officers to be hypervigilant is well illustrated by the statement, "There's no such thing as a routine traffic stop until the citizen is gone and the police officer drives off." The first thing that a police officer does when he/she enters a new surrounding, no matter how benign it may seem, is to scan the scene, looking for "what's wrong in this picture."

When an officer is called upon to respond to a potentially life-threatening situation, his autonomic nervous system sets in motion the old "fight or flight" arousal- the body's immediate response to extraordinary demands made upon it.

The normal human response is the "fight or flight" reaction, which enables the individual to strike out against the stress agent or flee from the scene. Police officers responses must be measured; running away is not an option. However, "fighting back" must be a controlled response. Officers must control the natural "attack" response that is instinctual.

THE GENERAL ADAPTION SYNDROME

"No living organism can exist continually in a stage of alarm - an agent so damaging that continuous exposure to it is incompatible with life. After prolonged exposure to any noxious agent, the body loses its acquired ability to resist, and enters into a stage of exhaustion. This third stage always occurs as long as the stress is severe enough and is applied long enough, because the adaptation energy or adaptability of a living being is always finite."

~Dr. Hans Selye

Defined by Hans Selye in 1936, this is the body's way of mobilizing its defenses against a perceived threat. It is a "whole body" response and involves all the resources the body can garner. Consider the following example: Officer Thomas is working the 3:00 p.m.- 11:00 p.m. shift. It is Saturday at 10:00 p.m. and he has responded to one run after another without a break. He has responded to everything from a "domestic" to a "breaking and entering" to a drug- related murder. Officer Thomas is standing in the Seven-Eleven store devouring two chilidogs, then washes them down with a 12-ounce can of Pepsi. He receives a radio call for a stolen vehicle. The driver has struck and killed two pedestrians, a mother and her toddler, and is now proceeding at a high rate of speed in Officer Thomas' direction. He answers the call and jumps into his vehicle with lights flashing and siren screaming. What is going on in his body is even more dramatic. Within seconds of the call, the General Adaptation Syndrome is in full swing.

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