Good Essay About Personnel Issues And Practices

The key factors contributing to the high stress level in police officers include:

Dealing with unsavory elements of society such as drug dealers, sexual predators, car accidents, and more.
A feeling that they will experience personal injury while performing their job.
A lack of balance between their work and their private live; i.e. they “take their job home with them”.
The need to become desensitized to do their job leads to the inability to be sensitive once they are off work.
Long periods of idleness broken up with periods of high-intensity stress. The body remains in constant alert in anticipation of the next event.

Long hours if overtime is required combined with changes in work schedules.

One stress management technique is exercise between work and home. This not only keeps the officer in peak physical shape to perform his job, it boosts the immune system and allows for stress release. A strenuous workout can alternate one day of strength training with one day of aerobics. The officer should take one day a week off to relax, preferable the same day each week. This is also a good time to take deep breathes and try to empty the mind of the day’s activities before going home.
Ways to prevent stress in police officers are to avoid mandatory overtime, provide opportunities for counseling or discussion with one another about shared concerns without fearing judgment, encourage opportunities for significant others to attend training in recognition of stress and ways to combat it from home, and learning meditation techniques for relaxation.
One fundamental way this strategy will potentially lead to reduced stress is to allow the officer to recognize that it is acceptable to experience stress and that it is important to address it. It will provide avenues for release and let the officer allow others to help him maintain a balanced outlook.
Higher education would be a benefit to police officers because the occupation would be regarded more as a profession. This would promote a more professional attitude toward being in law enforcement. Also, even with a two-year degree the officer would be exposed to the theories of psychology; this could assist with coping with stress once he or she in on the job.