Tactical police officer stress : an empirical investigation

Abstract

Job related job stress for members of municipal police department tactical teams in Texas was examined. The research aimed to answer questions regarding the degree of stress, perceived factors that cause stress, manifestations of stress, stress reduction techniques, and the effects of stress by using an improved methodology. Hans Selye first began stress research in the 1930's by explaining the process the body goes through when exposed to stress. The first accounts of research into police stress can be found in 1967 when Dillman and Niederhoffer published findings that police officers face job related stress. The initial research on police stress and its effect on police officers reported sources of stress relating to the job, the administration, and the courts. The symptoms of this job related stress have been linked to higher incidents of health and psychological problems. Another of the problems faced by police officers is PTSD, a new problem that is mostly found in relation to events outside the normal range of experiences, such as shootings. Several stress measurement instruments were examined in order to identify those which have survived empirical scrutiny or have been developed specifically for use in police job stress. Standardized mail survey procedures were employed to gather data using a questionnaire which incorporated previous police stress measurement instruments, and original close-end questions. Questionnaires were mailed to 82 different municipal police departments, following a small pilot study of the instrument. A total of 174 questionnaires were used in the statistical analyses. SWAT team members in this study generally reported good health and had positive methods of dealing with job-related stress. Results suggest that the respondents in this study had no higher job stress levels than other working adults, in most cases the levels were lower.