Predicting the effects of military service experience on stressful occupational events in police officers

A review of the literature suggests that law enforcement agencies adopted a paramilitary model of management based on little empirical evidence supporting the suitability of this model. Moreover, relatively little is known about the effects of prior military service experience on the work events experienced by police officers. This paper will examine the effects of prior military service experience on exposure to organizational and field work events, and perceptions of stress among these events. The results show that more military experience did not significantly predict fewer organizational work events and lower perceptions of stress, or more field work events and greater perceptions of stress. More years of police experience and section assignment predicted fewer field work events, although perceptions of stress were not significantly lower. These results are discussed, as they compare with salient demographic variables found to influence work stress in police officers.