Causes Of Stress In Law Enforcement

A big problem in todays world dealing with law enforcement officers is how high the stress level is and what stress can do to a person mentally and physically. Law enforcement officers have a higher rate of stress in today’s world because of everything they endure. Could be anything from a traffic stop to seeing people that die right there on the side of the road. They see everything and were only human so it has to take a toll on them in someway. All people are different so it could affect others in different ways. Some it could take longer for them to hit the breaking point and others I am sure it takes less of a time. With some of the stress levels reaching an all time high in this profession it sometimes leads to substance abuse and sleep
When a person gets so tired they will be unaware of what they are doing and can cause serious issues to themselves and possibly the harm of others. Maybe to the point of where they end up falling asleep on shift and driving into another car. Their decision-making or problem solving could just go right out the windows because they cannot make an adequate decision because there so exhausted. Their minds would not be in the right place or even think about anything to do with the job. “Some factors that can cause fatigue would be excessive overtime, filling out paperwork, poor management, second jobs for more income, and financial problems.” (Causes of Officer Stress and Fatigue 2012) Now a days a lot of people like to sue, and this could be a major one that could optionally get someone a lawsuit. If officers are so out of it they have no idea what there doing they could mess something up and not even realize it until it’s to late. They could end up not filling out the paperwork right and if they end up having to go to court and there paperwork isn’t right then that could screw everything up. I mean that just speaks for itself, just would bring lots of trouble that is not
There is a program called the Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) which is something that officers can go to after they have had an extreme call they have just went on. Or in their minds that was something traumatic. They sit down and talk it out and help their minds to process it as well as they can and try to understand the situation they were just in. May help take off some stress level if they are able to actually sit down and talk to someone about what has just happened. This program also has stages, and takes place anywhere from 1 day to 3 days after the incident. Another thing that officers and law enforcement personnel can go to is just simply regular therapy. There are always therapists out there to talk to if you are in need of talking to someone. There is nothing wrong with just going to see someone to talk to if you need it. Sometimes an outside person is needed to help you figure out things in your own head rather than your close friends or your significant other. Although people may not want to go see a psychiatrist because it make them be looked down upon its just something in this profession that needs to be done. It should not matter if you see a doctor to help you out because everyone is different and everyone works out there minds differently. The cop culture should accept someone in their family needs help then they should get the help they