Searching for Best Practices in Mitigating Occupational Stress for Police Officers

EDITORS NOTE: This research project has now closed and we will publish the findings as soon as we have them available. Please keep watching as we will be starting a project to discover and publicize best practices in Agency Wellness Practices in the near future.

CopsAlive.com was asked by Wendy Seiber a graduate student at George Fox University finishing a certificate in Trauma Response Services to post this survey of best practices in mitigating occupational stress for police officers. Please take this very quick survey.

Wendy was asked to design a project examining police stress mitigation compared to best practices. She told us “My project is examining how police departments deal with work related stress and how stress is mitigated. The goal of the project is to raise awareness to the general public, the media, and the government that more funding is needed in order to help reduce the amount of work related stress officers face. By increasing the funding for training, man-power, and stress reduction programs early on, there would be a reduction in the amount spent in early retirement, paid sick leave, loss of man-power, and other related costs in the future.”

Wendy’s project consists of an online survey that should take no more than 10-15 minutes of an officer’s time. The survey is completely anonymous and never asks for names of any identifying information.

To take the survey CLICK HERE

To view the up to the minute results of the survey CLICK HERE (results are instantly uploaded on site)

TO LEARN MORE CLICK TO KEEP READING:

“Best Practices in Mitigating Occupational Stress for Police Officers”

This research project will examine the general stress and trauma that police officers deal with in their everyday lives as part of their occupations. In particular, it will examine stress and training in regards to routine calls that officers respond to while on duty. Every day police officers are putting their lives on the line in order to protect the citizens of their city and states. Whether they are working behind a desk doing detective type investigation or on the front lines dealing with spousal abuse victims, gang violence, or tickets, they are facing a high level of stress. Research has shown that police officers face a higher level of stress than the general population. By expanding on the research that is already available, it would be possible to see where increased funding could help as well as raise the awareness to the public what it truly means to be an officer of the law.

The overall goal of this project is to examine whether individual police units abide by what best practices say regarding mitigating occupational stress for the officers and how the units are doing so, e.g., through trainings, seminars, etc. Several crucial questions to be asked in order to verify previous research are: what stressors do police officers actually find the most stressful in their occupation, and how do they show signs of the stress? The project will then examine what is offered by law enforcement agencies to reduce stress for the officers, what trainings are offered, and what would help in the future.

This project will examine several hypotheses regarding police stress and trauma as part of their occupation. It is first hypothesized that police experience the most occupational stress due to the interactions with the public and due to the overwhelming amount of paperwork involved with a call. It is also hypothesized that an increase in funds and man-power is desired by the officers to reduce the departmental stress.

To take the survey CLICK HERE

To view the up to the minute results of the survey CLICK HERE  (results are instantly uploaded on site)

Thank you for your help! This survey will benefit us all.

If you haven’t already done so please also take the Police Officer Wellness Evaluation Response© (P.O.W.E.R.) Survey. It takes about 5 minutes, is completely confidential, and is for LEO’s ONLY. They need your help to spread the word as they are looking for 1,000 responses CLICK HERE

CopsAlive is written to prompt discussions within our profession about the issues of law enforcement career survival. We invite you to share your opinions, ask questions and suggest topics for us in the Comment Box that is at the bottom of this article.

At The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) we train law enforcement officers to cope with stress and manage all the toxic effects and hidden dangers of a career in law enforcement.

Our “Armor Your Self™: How to Survive a Career in Law Enforcement” on-site training program is an eight hour, hands-on, “How to” seminar that helps police officers and other law enforcement professionals armor themselves physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually to survive their careers in police work. To learn more CLICK HERE

The concept of “True Blue Valor™” is where one law enforcement officer has to muster the courage to confront a peer who is slipping both professionally and personally and endangering themselves, their peers and the public. It takes a system of organizational support and professional leadership to support and foster the concept of courage and intervention. We will train your trainers to deliver this program to your agency.

To learn more CLICK HERE

Our “Armor Your Agency™: How to Create a Healthy and Supportive Law Enforcement Agency” Program includes critical strategies that you will need to build a system of support and encouragement for a healthy and productive agency. To learn more CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE to read more about The Law Enforcement Survival Institute.

CLICK HERE if you would like to contact us to learn more about training for your organization.

I’m John Marx, Founder of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute and the Editor of CopsAlive.com. Connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

CopsAlive.com was founded to provide information and strategies to help police officers successfully survive their careers. We help law enforcement officers and their agencies prepare for the risks that threaten their existence. Thank you for reading!