Principles of Law Enforcement

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Principles of Law Enforcement

• Chapter 6
• The Police Culture
• Personality and Stress

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Objectives

• To acquaint students with research that indicates
  there is a distinct police subculture
• To familiarize students with studies of police
  personality including attempts made to define
  police personality and to determine if it comes
  from officers own personalities or from the
  occupation

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Objectives Cont

• To present studies of police cynicism
• To familiarize students with the dirty Harry
  problem
• To discuss the problems of police stress, and see
  why it occurs, how it is exhibited, and what can
  be done to deal with it
• Discuss police suicide and what can be done about
  it

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Introduction
Police research experts who study the police
write about a distinct police sub-culture and a
distinct police personality. We wonder if police
are different from other people. If different
are the born that way or did police work make
them like that. This chapter will discuss police
culture or subculture concepts, police cynicism,
police personality, the Dirty Harry Problem, and
police stress and how to deal with the above
issues.
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The Police Culture or Sub-Culture

• Because of the experiences officers go through on
  the job, it causes them to band together into
  their own police culture or subculture
• Police get together after work in bars and on off
  days talk about their previous tour of duty
• The police sub-culture is characterized by
  clannishness, secrecy and isolation from those
  not in the group

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Police Sub-culture Cont..

• Many officers exclude themselves from old friends
  and family
• Officers work strange shifts 4/12 and 12/8. They
  work weekends and holidays.
• This makes it difficult to socialize with the
  average person
• Sleep disorders and they are tense

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Police Sub-culture Cont..

• Many officers dont want to go home to a house
  where everyone is asleep and going to get up at 6
  am to go to a regular job
• Police wives and husbands tend to socialize with
  other police wives and husbands
• Police families tend to socialize with other
  police families
• After a time the police world (the job) is the
  only world for many officers

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Blue Wall of Silence

• Officers tend to protect one another and will lie
  to supervisors and refuse to aid superior
  officers who may be investigating a fellow
  officer for wrongdoing
• Police create their own culture to deal with the
  anxiety and emotional stress of police work.

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Blue Wall of Silence Cont..

• Loyalty is a major part of the police sub-culture
  and it is extremely intense
• Officers tend to use the word backup in 2 ways
• When an officer needs assistance in an emergency
• Officers coming to their aid when they are
  challenged, criticized or even charges with
  wrongdoing

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Other Characteristics of Police Subculture

• The aggressive take charge officer is usually
  considered the best officer in the department
• This officer is looked upon by other officers
  to be honorable because they take risks and they
  are usually on the scene to help a fellow officer
  (loyalty)
• One for all and all for one attitude
• A good reason why community policing does not
  work well and why the public holds departments in
  low esteem

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Police Personality

• Personalities have common traits such as
  authoritarianism, suspicion, racism, hostility,
  insecurity, conservatism, and cynicism
• Three important features to police work are
  danger, authority, and isolation which shapes an
  officers personality

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Police Personalities Cont..

• Police have a higher emphasis on terminal values
  such as family, security and love and a lower
  emphasis on social values such as equality
• Police are more interested in personal goals such
  as an exciting life and less interested in social
  goals (world peace)

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Born with the traits or is it the job?

• Some say departments recruit people who by nature
  possess the traits of a police personality
• Others say the police personality is developed
  through doing the work

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Continuation of Traits

• The personality 1st starts to develop in the
  police academy where officers are taught strong
  unity right away
• Police instructors reinforce the police
  subculture by teaching danger and the need for
  officers to group together to defend themselves
  against civilians
• Sad but true of the academies in Georgia

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Police Cynicism

• Defined Is an attitude that there is no hope for
  the world and a view of humanity at its worst
• Officers deal with people they perceive as
  worthless who get off the hook by lenient court
  decisions and plea bargaining

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Police Cynicism Cont

• Police are very vulnerable to cynicism
• They lose faith in people, society, and
  eventually in themselves
• They develop into a cynic because of their
  experiences as a police officer
• The longer the length of service the more cynical
  they get
• If they are denied promotion and they have a
  college degree they become quite cynical

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Dirty Harry Problem

• Officers tend to justify in their minds that
  harming one person to save another is morally
  right even if it means violating the law
• Robin Hood- Rob from the rich to give to the
  poor
• Dirty Harry problems are real serious ethical
  problems facing our police

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Police Stress

• Officers are faced with many stressful situations
  during a tour of duty
• Police response is usually good but the stress
  response takes its toll on the officers
  physical and mental state
• Stress is the bodys reaction to internal and
  external stimuli
• The bodys reaction is fight or flight

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Police Stress Continued

• Under stress the body produces quantities of
  adrenaline from the adrenal glands
• The liver provides stored carbs for extra energy
• Heartbeat and respiration quicken
• Increased blood pressure and muscle tension
• Lack of need for the adrenaline causes headaches,
  upset stomach, heartburn
• Stress alone does not cause illness but it
  assists diseases in taking over the body
• Results are hypertension, ulcers, heart disease
  and possibly cancer

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Nature of Police Stress

• Police work is in the top 10 in the US as far as
  stress
• Police have higher rates of divorce, suicide than
  most professions
• The police occupation is more consistent and
  persistent to strain, tension, confrontations,
  and nerve wracking than most other jobs

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Types of Police Stress

• External Stress- Produced by threats and dangers
  in the field
• Organizational Stress- Produced by elements
  within a quasi-military department
• Constant adjustment to changing tours of duty
• Odd working hours
• Working holidays
• Strict discipline imposed on officers
• Personal Stress- difficulties in getting along
  with other officers

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Types of Police Stress Continued

• Operational Stress- Produced by the daily need to
  confront the tragedies of urban life
• Dealing with drug addicts, criminals, and the
  mentally disturbed
• Suicide by Cop- Many cops who are put in the
  situation of taking a life because they were
  deliberately placed there usually resort to drugs
  and alcohol

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Factors that cause Police Stress

• Poor Training
• Substandard equipment
• Poor pay
• Lack of Opportunity
• Exposure to brutality
• Fears about job incompetence and safety
• Lack of job satisfaction
• Lack of physical fitness

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Effects of stress on Police Officers

• To much stress affects health
• Creates bad eating habits and unhealthy diets
• Causes marital problems, health problems,
  problems with drugs and alcohol
• Officers involved in killings suffer from
  postshooting trauma which may ruin their careers.
  They usually leave the department within 7 years

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Stress and Police Families

• Between 10 and 20 per cent of all police wives
  are dissatisfied with the husbands job and would
  like to see the husband leave the department
• Family disruption due to rotating shifts
• Child care problems
• Unavailable for holidays
• Overtime which causes tension from not being home

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Families Cont

• Unpredictable work environment
• Observation of human tragedy causes the officer
  to change his personality which affects the
  family
• The public calls on officers off duty to handle
  problems in the neighborhood because the hold the
  officer to a higher standard of behavior
• Carrying the job home to the family

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How departments Deal with Police Stress

• Departments provided stress management programs
  to officers and to spouses
• Identify officers who are under stress and
  provide them counseling
• Conduct periodic screenings and training on
  stress management
• Provide confidential counseling services to
  officers and their families

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Police Suicide

• Police suicide is increasing
• Out of 13 deaths in the NYPD in 1994, eleven of
  them were officer suicides
• The rate is 3 times higher than that of the
  general population
• Officers are usually very reluctant to ask for
  any help when they need it
• Police Management programs are needed that will
  allow officers to get help w/o termination or
  other punitive action.

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The End