How Does Stress Affect the Policing Community?

cjs210Write a 200- to 300-word response addressing the following questions: How does stress affect the policing community? Stress has many effects on the policing community as a whole. Officers may lose sleep over the stress and become fatigued which in turn causes them to lack on their duties, or delay their reaction time. Officers may also get so stressed that they go through a post traumatic disorder. Post traumatic disorder can cause officers nightmares, or worse they can wind up committing suicide.

How does police culture support police officers in evolving job situations? Police culture support officers throughout the evolving job situations by protecting each other. Officers have a brotherhood and a closeness that no other career has because of the daily struggles they go through. Due to the fact that an officer’s job is so stressful they build a bond and become a family for one another to lean on. Being able for them to help each other is important because they know what the other one goes through and what they see on a daily basis.

Without the support from fellow officers I feel that many may not be able to make it through being a police officer. What resources exist to help officers handle stress? Some departments have their own psychiatrists that are always there when an officer handles a call that may be too stressful. There are also other ways that they cope like with private therapists, or working out. Exercise helps some, but not all which is why there are experts that are more equipped to deal with the daily problems officers may have.