Stress Management Programs

Law enforcement officers deal with stressful situations in the normal course of their duties. Excessive stress on individual officers may impair his or her ability to carry out his or her responsibilities. In addition to the impact on individuals, excessive stress on officers means that the law enforcement organization he or she serve suffers a diminished capacity to serve the public. Therefore, in order to keep law enforcement organizations operating at optimal levels, administrators must be able to identify the causes of dysfunctional stress on individual officers and take effective action to reduce its effects. There are so many areas of stress that law enforcement individuals deal with, the ones that came to mind are: inadequate feedback to influence decision-making policies, uncertainty about the officer's prescribed roles and duties, threats to the officer's positive self-image, interdepartmental problems caused by internal politics, promotions, and favoritism, low pay, low workplace morale, the officer's fear of doing "something wrong" and of being criticized or investigated and finally, the distress generated by shift changes often required by law enforcement scheduling causes both emotional and physical problems. 

In my past law enforcement position, Telecommunications Operator (police dispatcher) I found the stress levels to be extremely negative on myself and coworkers. Our hours were long, the calls we took from our 911 line were oftentimes life threatening and the high turnover rate that we experienced added overtime, which was often mandatory which only increased the stress we were already trying to combat. A final area that telecommunication operators deal with is the stress within their agencies, "Many researchers have cited the inadequacy of two-way communications between the administration, supervisors, and line officers, in law enforcement, as a compelling internal stressor. " (Duffee, 1979) If law enforcement employees cannot turn to their superiors within their agency, a lack of teamwork and employee morale may occur.