Stress in Police Force

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Mikaela Burdette Personal side of Police The constant stress that police officers face; often result in unstable levels of a chemical called cortical. This instability lowers a police officer's ability to fight off disease, particularly cardiovascular problems. They also may suffer from problems like insomnia and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The study of police culture has traditionally been from sociology and psychology. Police are said to have a “we-they or us-them” worldview. This in-group, we (police) v. they (civilians). Solidarity is associated with the idea of police subculture, but in practice the more general term culture is commonly used to describe everything police share in common. Not many have an accurate understanding of what police officers go through while working in high stress and dangerous environments. Police officers are taken for granted and people rarely think of the personal, mental, and physical sacrifices that police make in order to protect our community. Police officers are more or less nameless and faceless people separated from the rest of society. They are the enforcers of the laws our society deems as appropriate behavior, even if it contradicts what an individual officer believes. If it's hard for some to see that police endure great amounts of stress, think about the fact that police have to deal with getting hurt or killed, being held liable, having alternating shifts, having less free time, and never escaping the police mentality; all are reasons that police officers face impossible stress and pressure over their career. Problems also come to police officers from other directions that cause even higher levels of stress: family, public, department, internally, and environmentally. Stress, as a whole, must be seen in the entire context to which it exists: physically, mentally, socially, politically, culturally,

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