Guest editorial: An introduction to the special issue: stress, health and wellness in policing: understanding and addressing complex issues Free

When we proposed this Special Issue back in 2019, we noted that the prevalence of work-related mental and physical health issues among law enforcement officers was on the rise, underscoring the need for increased research attention to police health and wellness. The world (of policing, and the world more broadly) has changed immensely since then in ways that make policing even more stressful and demanding than were imaginable even several years ago. The COVID-19 pandemic has created and exacerbated many challenges for law enforcement; despite the risk, agencies and officers have had to adapt to public health recommendations while continuing to serve their communities. Officers have been faced with heightened health and safety challenges at work, all while facing increased community demands and managing their own nonwork responsibilities like childcare. Agencies are facing further disruptions due to budget and staffing shortfalls.

The challenges of the public health crisis were compounded by large-scale civil unrest and calls for policing reform, including a movement to “defund” or at a minimum “re-imagine” certain aspects of the role of law enforcement. Following the death of George Floyd, for the first time in decades, a majority of American adults reported that they did not trust law enforcement (Brenan, 2020; Ortiz, 2020). Poor police–community relations are not limited to the United States. Many countries have struggled with tense relations between law enforcement and community members – particularly those in economically disadvantaged communities (Cheatham and Maizland, 2020).

Initial research to understand the impact of these events is now underway but it will take years to understand the totality of the consequences of these and other large-scale events on officer stress and wellbeing. Yet, despite the significant and likely long-lasting effects of these recent events on law enforcement officers, we know that a much wider range of stressors that include both external (e.g. exposure to traumatic incidents) and internal (e.g. shift work) characteristics of policing have dramatic effects on officer health and wellness. In fact, research has shown that over the long term, everyday organizational stressors, such as dealing with supervisors or lack of training, can have as much of a negative impact on officer health and wellness as significant external events (e.g. Shane, 2010). Therefore, it is necessary to understand both acute and chronic stressors and how they impact officers in different countries, regions, cultures and roles.

The value of studying police stress and officer health and wellness cannot be overstated; it is essential for healthy law enforcement organizations, healthy officers and fair and equitable policing. Work-related stressors have been shown to negatively affect a number of key health outcomes for officers, including sleep, cardiovascular disease risk factors (e.g. obesity, hypertension), mood disorders like anxiety and depression and serious mental health outcomes like suicidal ideation and suicidal behavior (see Violanti et al., 2017). Law enforcement officers deserve to work in a profession that minimizes stress and harm to the extent possible and provides effective, evidence-based resources and supports for mitigating the impact of stressors that are inherent to the job.

It is also important to study police stress for the impact it has on other important societal outcomes, such as police–community relations. For example, officers who experience more stress-related burnout report more favorable attitudes toward the use of violence (Kop et al., 1999). The bottom line is that stress directly, and indirectly, affects decision-making. Exposure to threatening or stressful events corresponds with higher levels of sympathetic nervous system arousal (e.g. fight-or-flight responses) and the release of stimulant hormones. This then spurs physiological changes that include increased blood pressure and muscle tension; changes in heart rate (Akselrod et al., 1981); and impaired fine motor skills, focus and decision-making (Johnson, 2008; Lovallo, 2016). Stress hormones limit one’s ability to access stored memories and experiences (Lipton, 2008).

Heightened physiological arousal may also drive individuals into a state of “hypervigilance,” in which they rely more on their reactive limbic system than their frontal lobe, which is used for reasoning and analytical thinking (see Janis et al., 1983). Stressful events encourage “resource depletion” (Baradell and Klein, 1993) in which cognitive resources are channeled toward managing the anxiety that is generated from exposure to a stressful event, reducing the ability to consider options or alternatives or to scan the environment for additional information. In sum, looking across the research, it is clear that stress is a key component of short- and long-term performance and decision-making. Therefore, understanding and subsequently reducing officer stress holds promise not only for improving the lives of officers themselves but also for addressing some of the toughest issues facing policing today.

The stated goals of this Special Issue were to: (1) increase awareness of the diversity, severity and consequences of stressors facing police; (2) provide suggestions and guidance for future research in this area; and (3) deliver recommendations for practice that agencies can use to improve officer health and well-being. Our Call for Papers resulted in the submission of over 40 abstracts, and the acceptance of 17 diverse, high-quality papers addressing various facets of this complex issue. Because of the number of relevant papers and the importance of officer stress, health and wellness today, the Special Issue covers not only the papers in this volume but also seven additional papers which were published in 44:1.

This collection of papers expands our knowledge base regarding sources of stress and health issues; the extent and impact of stress on officers in different contexts; and effective methodologies for examining officer stress. Importantly, the articles also provide evidence-based solutions and practical applications for the field and chart directions for future research, all of which we describe below.

The papers in this Special Issue highlight the complexity of law enforcement officer stress, both in terms of the diversity of its sources and the impact upon officers. Some of the stressors examined by the authors are operational or inherent to the job itself. Bozga, Almuth and Brown examined the effects of conducting rape and sexual violence investigations on female officers. They found that the demands specific to this type of work, such as repeated exposure to distressing cases and the challenge of balancing investigative objectivity with compassion for victims, led to serious and long-lasting vicarious traumatization. These stressors affected not only officer wellbeing (manifesting as depression, anxiety and disrupted intimacy among partners, among other outcomes) but also performance, through avoidant coping and a reduction in victim care.

The papers also highlight the impact of organizational stressors, or characteristics of the work environment, on officer stress and health. For example, Ceka and Ermasova examined police officers' sources of stress and their use of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to improve their wellbeing. They found that female police officers experience more stress than male police officers, largely because of unfair promotional opportunities and poor relationships with supervisors. Female participants in their study also reported less willingness to utilize EAP services to mitigate stress than male officers.

Chase and colleagues studied the association between health-related fitness, perceived stress and metabolic syndrome among a sample of officers, and noted that although law enforcement work involves instances of high physical activity, the overwhelming majority of duties do not require a high level of physical ability. The amount of sedentary time officers spend in their patrol cars can contribute to symptoms of metabolic syndrome, a precursor to cardiovascular disease. Their study highlights the importance of considering all aspects of officers' daily work as it relates to health and safety – not just obvious high-risk activities, like exposure to violence.

It is important to acknowledge that work-related stress can impact officers throughout the lifespan, even after employment age. Parnaby and Broll studied trauma, resilience and satisfaction with life among retired police officers. They found that off-the-job trauma and resilience were significantly related to satisfaction with life in retirement, highlighting the importance of police officers' wellbeing outside of work and their ability to develop coping skills that foster resilience throughout their careers.

Understanding work-related stress for law enforcement officers is substantially complicated because it is not experienced the same way across agencies, officer types, officer characteristics and contexts. As such, multiple papers in this collection highlight the need for contextualized research. In their national assessment of law enforcement suicide, Violanti and Steege found that law enforcement personnel are 54% more likely to die of suicide than decedents in other occupations and that proportionate mortality ratios are highest for African Americans, Hispanic males and for females. They note that minority status may confer additional risks of suicidality.

Houdmont, Jachens, Randall and Colwell examined job stress and psychological distress in English rural policing. They found that, while some of the officers' job stress mirrors that of officers in different contexts, the rural environment brings unique challenges not experienced in more urban settings. In rural settings, for example, officers may experience greater stress due to the risk of harm in dealing with violent incidents without timely backup.

In their 15-years study on shift work and overtime across a career in law enforcement, Reidy, Fekedulegn, Vila, Andrew and Violanti found that shiftwork, overtime and long work hours tend to be more prevalent during different points within officers' careers – namely, in the beginning and following promotions – which highlights that the same officers may experience varying levels of the same stressors over time. This has implications for when and how trainings and supports should be introduced and reinforced to best support officer health.

Despite recent attention to the issue of officer health and wellness, relatively little research has elaborated on this topic for police officers outside the United States. Contributing to this limited body of research, papers in the Special Issue examined the prevalence and sources of stress in understudied regions. Baek, Choi and Seepersad examined job stress, burnout and health-related problems in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service. They explain that the dearth of research on Caribbean policing is particularly problematic because of recently elevated violent and organized crime in the region, coupled with increasingly heavy workloads and added responsibilities. They found burnout to be a strong mediator in the relationship between job stress and general health and noted that resources currently available to officers, such as access to counselors, are rarely utilized, because of stigma.

Fayyad, Kukic, Koropanovski and Dopsaj addressed a parallel gap in research knowledge among Lebanese police officers. Their study was one of only a few that have examined the prevalence and types of stressors among officers in the Middle East region. They found stress to be a universal characteristic of respondents: 59% of officers reported moderate stress while 41% reported stress levels as strenuous. The most impactful stressors examined were excessive workload and social-life time management, highlighting the impact of work-related stress on nonwork aspects of life.

A more comprehensive understanding of officer stress and wellness cannot be advanced without methodological enhancements. The papers in this issue utilize a wide range of methodologies, each determined by the research questions addressed, as well as practical considerations for data collection. For example, Den Houter and Chatterjee utilized an experimental design to manipulate officer gender and race, civilian gender and race and officer strategies employed in a news article describing a tense police–civilian interaction. The authors found that female officers were perceived as more appropriate in their actions than male officers overall, but that Black, female officers were rated as both less warm and appropriate in their actions than white, female officers. These findings suggest that officer gender and race may impact experiences of work-related stress stemming from negative perceptions of the police by the public.

Other research in the Special Issue highlights the importance of utilizing police-specific scales to capture certain health and wellness-related constructs. Amendola, Valdovinos, Grieco and Robbins' paper describes the development of a police-specific measure of work-family conflict, in which they adapted existing dimensions of work-family conflict and identified three additional dimensions that may be specific to the policing profession: absorption, emotional-based work-family conflict and culture-based work-family conflict.

Some authors demonstrate the importance of using a mixed-methods approach to answering key research questions. For example, in her study of Canadian police officers' perceptions of mental health stigma in the workplace, Bikos used data from two nationwide sources: a self-report survey and semi-structured interviews with officers from 31 police agencies. The survey allowed for the assessment of prevalence, with the majority of officers reporting that stigma toward mental illness in their workplace remains, despite senior management messaging and program implementation. The complimentary qualitative interview data provided a deeper and more nuanced understanding. Specifically, Bikos found that those who struggled with mental health were often labelled weak, incompetent and lazy within their agencies, and that these perceptions led many to internalize these labels and stereotypes in a process known as self-stigmatization.

One of the main goals of this Special Issue was to provide evidence-based recommendations for reducing stress and improving health that can be implemented by law enforcement practitioners. Many of the papers provide concrete suggestions for policies and practices to improve officer wellbeing. In their study of vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress and burnout among detectives who investigate sexual assault, Morabito, Pattavina and Williams identify a number of actions agencies can take to ameliorate the impact of the institutional aspects of stress experienced by these officers. They suggest that command staff can take steps to reduce conditions that lead to the perceived lack of prestige and support within the organization for sexual assault investigation as compared to other major crimes. They recommend that leadership: (1) highlight the importance and value of the work within the organization and for the larger community; (2) lower caseloads and increase administrative support to reduce the fatigue experienced by detectives and reduce role overload; and (3) potentially limit how long officers serve in these positions.

In their systematic review on memory of stressful critical incidents, Di Nota, Stoliker, Vaughan, Andersen and Anderson developed a set of best practices regarding the encoding, consolidation and recall of information. These recommendations include: having officers immediately (or as soon as possible) record an independent account of internal (i.e. emotional, arousal) and external perceptions of what they saw, heard or did (including information excluded from body worn camera footage); creating conditions for officer interviews and questioning that reduce stress to the extent possible (to preserve recall accuracy, especially for officer-involved shootings and lethal force encounters); and to obtain officer testimony within 24–48 h to allow recovery from severe stress responses and at least one night of REM sleep, which improves memory.

In their national assessment of law enforcement worker suicide, Violanti and Steege provide recommendations for suicide prevention, noting that organizational policies and culture play a major role, in that officers are socialized into feeling that they should remain unaffected by negative experiences and events. To counter this, the authors suggest that agencies consider implementing or enhancing initiatives such as peer support programs, suicide awareness and prevention training, postvention (knowing how to respond effectively if an officer suicide does occur in their jurisdiction) and reducing access to lethal means among individuals at risk for suicide.

The value in this Special Issue lies not only in the presentation of the results and implications of these impactful studies, but in the paths they chart for future research. Multiple papers in the issue suggest utilizing different sources or types of data to enhance understanding of stress and health issues. For example, in her study of how officers build resilience while under serious threat from criminals, Sigad suggests that future research includes the perspectives of relevant others – namely, family and colleagues – in understanding this important phenomenon.

A common theme throughout these papers is the need to implement and evaluate interventions aimed at reducing the occurrences and impacts of occupational stress. For example, in their study of the impact of police social support on wellbeing, Schantz, Coxe and Bruk-Lee state that programs to build supervisors' skills for open communication show promise as a strategy in reducing burnout, but that future research would be needed to evaluate the effectiveness of such initiatives.

Finally, many papers note the need for replication studies, often with larger samples. For example, Habersaat, Abdellaoui and Wolf examined the relationship between social desirability, stress and health among police officers. They found that social desirability – particularly, pretending (inflating one's capacities) – is related not only to changes in self-reported stress but also objective measures of stress (i.e. cortisol concentration in saliva samples). The authors note that future studies with larger samples of officers will help to bolster the findings and inform subsequent practical applications in this area.

Looking across these studies we see reason to be optimistic about the state of law enforcement officer health and wellness research. Because of the expanded body of research, we know more about how a career in law enforcement can have negative impacts on officers, their families, the organizations they work for and their interactions with the community. This improved knowledge has led to a number of promising strategies to help ameliorate these negative impacts. Nevertheless, one major gap continues to be the noticeable lack of research that empirically demonstrates the effectiveness of wellness strategies across the diversity of law enforcement settings. It is clear that more needs to be done to use our knowledge about health and wellness to improve the working conditions and lives of law enforcement officers. This includes translating research findings into practical, user-friendly guidance and tools for use in the field. In doing this, we would expect benefits to extend beyond individual officers; healthy officers are a necessary precursor to conducting policing that is fair, equitable and effective.