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Reducing Stress... A Department-Centered Approach. People in all walks of life experience, and must find ways to cope with stress. However, in the past 20 years, researchers and criminal justice professionals have identified stress factors unique to, or more pronounced among law enforcement officers. Today, law enforcement is widely considered to be among the most stressful occupations, associated with high rates of divorce, alcoholism, suicide and other emotional and health problems such as heart attacks and strokes. Sources of stress for individual officers can be placed into five general categories: issues in the officer's personal life, the pressures of law enforcement work, the attitude of the general public toward police work and officers, the operation of the criminal justice system, and the law enforcement organization itself. Many people perceive the danger and tension of law enforcement work - as dramatized in books, movies and television shows - to be the most serious sources of stress for officers. In fact, the most common sources of police officer stress involves the policies and procedures of law enforcement agencies themselves. Most police stress programs and consulting mental health practitioners focus primarily, if not exclusively, on preventing and treating stress among individual officers. However, the "person - centered" approach currently employed by many departments fails to address the underlying organizational problems that form the basis of much of the stress experienced by officers. It stands to reason, then as one expert in the field suggested that "...an organization - centered approach... Identifying the problems the officers have with their work, supervisors, and pay, and making appropriate changes - may well have a greater influence on improving morale." Unfortunately, stress program staffs and independent practitioners often lack the time to work with management to eliminate the sources of organizational stress. Moreover, few clinicians feel qualified to suggest organizational changes to law enforcement administrators. At the same time, police administrators might not accept what they perceive to be the intrusion of a mental health professional into department operations. Administrators also may believe that they do not have the time or resources to make the desired changes, or they simply might not agree that organizational changes will reduce officer stress. Yet, a growing number of agencies have found that even modest modifications in organizational structure can lead to enhanced moral and productivity among line officers. Although some administrators might institute organizational changes simply because they believe it is the right thing to do, there are a host of reasons that should compel reluctant administrators to consider such changes. ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE BENEFITS. Enhance the Department's Image. Bad press, public criticism, and legislative scrutiny can be sources of stress for both law enforcement administrators and line officers. Organizational changes that reduce officer stress can improve the departments image simultaneously. Negative publicity resulting from 8 officer suicides in 5 years - 3 of them in 1994 - prompted the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Police Department to create the agency's first stress manager position in 1995. Among other duties, the stress manager examines departmental policies and procedures and recommends ways to make them less stressful. Some departments have documented substantial cost savings resulting from organizational change. Police administrators understand all too well the costs associated with replacing officers who take early retirement or go on disability. The department not only must pay benefits to departing officers, but it also must pay to recruit, test, hire, train and equip new officers. Reducing organizational sources of stress should lead naturally to better morale, improved productivity, and, therefore, enhanced overall department efficiency. IMPLEMENTED CHANGES Administrators in agencies across the country have implemented significant organizational changes as a way of reducing officer stress. The changes generally affect supervisory style, field training officer programs, critical incident counseling, command support after critical incidents, shift work, and job assignments. Another important step in reducing organizational stress involves training individual managers on stress-inducing practices and events within their units. This training typically results from a manager's request for specific training in problem solving. The Michigan State Police Behavioral Science Section trains both experienced and new sergeants every year in techniques to manage critical incident stress among officers. After a critical incident, it is very important that support comes from the Chief down through the command staff. Command level staff also can offer assurance and support to family members - including helping with paper work, providing telephone numbers for follow up assistance, and simply spending time with them. Word of command staff's concern typically spreads through the department grapevine to every officer on the force, instantly improving morale and alleviating stress. Other areas of stress may come form shift schedules, job assignments, the scheduling of court time and the list goes on. With pressures on law enforcement agencies to perform increasingly complex functions with minimized funding, police administrators must examine ways to enable officers to perform their responsibilities as efficiently as possible. The steps that a number of agencies have taken to reduce organizational sources of stress illustrate that departments can change their policies and procedures in ways that enhance and certainly do not compromise their public safety missions. Taken in part from Reducing Stress - An Organization Centered Approach by Peter Finn, M.A. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin August 1997.
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