Social and Pychological Affects on a Rookie Police Officer

Is law movement a trying chisel? Is it reachful when you ar making everywhere unmatched hundred thousand dollars a year, as atomic number 18 nearly policemans? What is the home action equivalent of a natural law officer? What are the occupational and fond stresses that an officer must pot with? What dangers do officers dish up with every period they put on their shield? What must they give up in life, when they decide they want to cross the blue line? Over the future(a) ten pages or so, I am spill to tackle these areas as well as many others, while I try to con preceding the stresses of being a law officer.Some people w rushethorn palpate that hitherto up though law officers render probably the toughest business sector in the country, that they do non check stressed step to the fore, and it is non brought into their home life. However I individualally feel, that if the job is besides stressful, then the officer in pass may not be open to do t he job up to his or her potential. Now, if the officer is not able-bodied to fully do the job up to his or her potential, then we as citizens are not as safe and sound and secure as we should be. Many officers arrive got the stress of unification and kids, poor exit hours, and poor working conditions beca put on of the areas that they work in.They must deal with citizens who are not al focusings up to code, when it comes to doing the right thing. Officers have to deal with being be governd by people who do not necessarily lieu them as an authority get in. All of these extenuating circumstances hobo contract a person, in any occupation, to buy the farm stressed, but a police officer has to deal with this everyday. While doing the research for this paper, I was able to knock a broad array of articles ranging from the divorce rates of police officers, to the suicide rate of police officers, which grew awesomely from the nineteen eighties through today.I was able to find ace extra article that discussed the stresses of being underground. I was excessively fortunate enough, to have spoken with my cousins fiance, who is alike an undercover officer (although Ill try not to divulge the specifics of his work). There were articles on how the danger of policing is increasing today to what it is like to actually be a law enforcement officer. There are people who feel that law enforcement officers are not embraced by the community, but have to admit that their task is difficult. Laurence miller said, Police officers regularly deal with the most violent, impulsive, predatory members of society (www. aets. org/article87. html) He overly went on to discuss the stress birth aim of their job, and how they are to a greater extent than reluctant to talk to outsiders or to show weakness in front of their peers (www. aaets. org/article87. html). natural law enforcement is a difficult field to get into. You have to stool many sacrifices when you join the for ce. There are friends that you have to give up and holidays that you forget miss. You will miss nights out with friends and possibly miss your kids birthday. A lot of people leave nice office jobs with no take a chance or pressure, where they work in a stress free environment.They get thrown right into the fray, doing things they would have never imagined. They go out at that place and they protect us. They do the things we do not want to do. They keep our neighborhoods safe at night, they keep the drug dealers off the streets and they provide a sensory faculty of calming in our hearts when we sympathize them out at that place doing their jobs. However, I do not think we have ever truly interpreted a look at what goes on with them. I feel that there is a lot of stress that is put on them and I am button to prove to you, that being a police officer has a lot more stress than you could have imagined.I stated that the job is so stressful on some officers that it breaks up their families. The national divorce rate is fifty percent. However, the divorce rate for police officers is hexadty to seventy fivesome percent (Police Stress And The Effects On Family, Sgt. Corey Haines pg. 6 http//www. emich. edu/cerns/ passelloads/papers/PoliceStaff ) Sgt. Haines tells us that in a twenty to twenty five year line of achievement span, it is not vocalismicularly unusual for an officer to go through six to eight pairings (police stress and the effect on family, Sgt. Corey Haines pg. 6). Why is it that an officers marriage is torn apart when he is on the force?It is because of the level of stress that is brought upon this individual, and not sleep withing how to plough it. If an officer was trained to handle their stress more effectively, I do not feel that we would see such a drastic rate of divorce. By managing stress more effectively officer will have the tools necessary to be bust equipped in their professional and personal live (http//www. emich. edu/cerns /downloads/papers/PoliceStaff pg. 7). Sgt. Haines one clock time again goes on to explain that officers feel that unaccompanied other officers conceive their careers and problem, and that leads them into isolation from their families.He says that Too many times officers choose to spend their off-duty time venting their frustrations with co-workers rather than spending quality time with their spouses (http//www. emich. edu/cerns/downloads/papers/PoliceStaff pg. 7). plain this leads to the stress not only being put onto the officer, but also onto their families. It eventually gives their family the feeling that they are being pushed away, and left out of an big part of their spouses life. We know that the stress of the job can lead to these high divorce rates.The question I ask you is, how do we curve these trends in the other direction? Sgt. Haines feels that officers and supervisors should be taught some the symptoms and effects of job stress. Proactive training helps ward off stress when officers append it. When an officer suffers from stress, reactive counseling and training should be available (police stress and the effects on family, Sgt. Corey Haines pg. 8). Sgt. Haines has seen that when an officer has the proper training in traffic with stress, that they are able to tackle the problem efficiently.He wrote that programs for individuals often help geld organizational stress. When a department provides a psychologist and a chaplain, the officers see that psyche at the pass off does understand their problems and is trying to help. ((http//www. emich. edu/cerns/downloads/papers/PoliceStaff pg. 8) I know that stress can not be taken out of police work, but if it is recognized by the department and dealt with in a seasonable manner, then I feel that it can have a steadfast affect on an officers quality of life and career. It is also understood that the job is not creating all of the stress in an officers life.I understand that there are always a cquittance to be issues at home. Fighting with the wife, getting the kids through school and everything else that comes with being a husband and a father. The thing is, you have to be able to crack your social life, or the life you are used to, from your job. The second your journey starts you have to give one hundred percent of your attention to police work. If you are not giving all of your attention to your job, you are endangering yourself and the lives of everyone you are being paid to protect.Family stresses are not the only thing that a police officer has to deal with. While talking to my cousins fiance yesterday, and discussing with him the topic of my paper, he really opened my eyes about some things. He actually told me that when you are a civilian, you genial of scarcely take things for granted. It is like saying ok I can go to the bar today and watch football and you will not have to worry about who is there. However when you are on the force, you have to take a shi t who your friends are. You can not hang around with people who have a ostracize influence on your life.You constantly have to think to yourself, What kind of impact will this have on me and my career. Some friends that you may have known since you grew up may not be able to be a part of your life any longer. These are sacrifices that you have to accomplish for your career, and they can cause a great amount of stress on you. Cops are different from you and I. When we see cops, we see them for the most part as authority figures. We deal with them differently, as opposed to how we would deal with soulfulness who did not have any authority. Some people say cops are never off-duty.Even when the officer is not working, there is a tendency to attack problems and take charge (www. heavy seriouslyge. com/10 basiss. html). Why is it, that we automatically assume since someone is a cop, that they must help? Do we not think that, hey mayhap we are move a lot of pressure on this guy? We do not realize that cops are isolated from us. The wearing of a badge, uniform and triggerman makes a law officer separate from society. This segregation leads to many psychological effects which research shows can create negative personality traits (www. heavybadge. com/10reasons. tml). We go on to learn that just wearing the badge or a gun can cause an officer to act more acutely toward people, and these are changes that can pop off to anyone wearing a badge or uniform. However many officers suggest there is a role, or masquerade costume which they put on along with their uniform (www. heavybadge. com/10reasons. html).What they are not give tongue to us is, that sometimes their role leaks over into their personal lives and changes the course of their relationships. Law enforcement officers work in a quasi- legions, structured institution (www. eavybadge. com/10reasons. html). Now what this particular passage is talking about is the fact that, in a military type environment, the individual is not of a great concern. In this vitrine the individual is the officer. In these types of environments it is the goal of the group that is paramount to success. If an officer is not performing up to standards and hinders the group feat, then they will be punished. They will de-humanize you, to make you realize you are only a valued part of a machine (www. heavybadge. com/10reasons. tml). How does that make an individual feel? Knowing that no matter what you do, you are not recognized as an individual, but only as a cog in a machine. The stress of performance can add up, knowing if you do not perform, there will be consequences. However it is not all the quasi-military style that can bring on the amounts of stress that officers deal with. What we take to realize is that the at work world of the officers is very negative (www. heavybadge. com/10reasons. html. An officer is constantly seeing the bad part of society.Granted you do see good things along the way. However it is the job of the police officer to find the bad, and deal with it. Is it always fun to work in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and see these teenagers, who have their whole lives ahead of them, going down the wrong path? Is it not stressful to know that all these kids film is a little bit of education, and guidance in their lives. I feel it is more stressful on the officers in todays world, when it seems like every time you read the latespaper, you see a random person getting hit with a stray bullet shot by a teen.These could be your kids, and you never really know what is going on when you are on the job. It is extremely stressful when you have to deal with kids, going down the wrong path constantly. Officer Dan Goldfarb gave a speech to concretion delegates and defined stress as that feeling and desire along with the turn out bodily effects, experienced by a person who has a unfluctuating and true longing to choke the living shit out of someone who desperately deserves it, but you can not (www. heavybadge. com/efstress. html. ) What officer Goldfarb is trying to ortray in his speech is that an officer has to show a tremendous amount of controller. He says police work by its nature calls for an incredible amount of restraint (www. heavybadge. com/efstress. html. ) The demand on officers to show greater restraint has grown over the years, and with that so has the stress level on the job. Between nineteen cardinal four and nineteen sixty, police suicide rates were half that of the general population. Between nineteen eighty to the present, suicide rates in some departments have doubled. (www. heavybadge. com/efstress. html. Why has the suicide rate jumped to this rather high figure? Well according to officer Goldfarb, it is because you can not choke them anymore (www. heavybadge. com/efstress. html. ) What he is portraying is that street justice is all but gone. Everyone has icon cameras and the media just loves to put officers down. Politicians continue to pander to the public with new laws and restrictions for police officers that further tie their hands (www. heavybadge. com/efstress. html. ) Why is it that politicians are always so eager to get involved in police matters?Well for one it has to do with public appeal. If a politician is not doing anything good, and he require to save face, what is the best way to do it? Get on top of law enforcement. There are some people who do not like law enforcement. It is like always having a way out. No matter how bad you are at your job, you can always go the route of law enforcement. However there are some politicians who use law enforcement to further their own agenda. I am not going to mention names but in my opinion the reverend Al Sharpton tends to do this a lot. Let me ask you this, do we ever really hear from good old Al?Nope, Only when there has been an ruffle involving African Americans and usually the police, does Al come out of the wood whole kit to spew his hatred of the in the buff York Police Department to national television. If it was not for the police officers doing their jobs, then poor Mr. Sharpton would never have a reason to come out. Politicians are not the last people to stress out the police. Leah Cook, a student at San Jose State University wrote in the media, it seemed that police officers were seldom extolmentd, but rather criticized or harassed for overstepping civil rights boundaries. www. focusanthro. org/essays/cook03-04. html)She was grievous us how news reports (once again the media) are quick to accuse police officers for brutality. However the police departments have set policies and procedures to ensure officer safety, even if it means physically restraining an unruly citizen. (www. focusanthro. org/essays/cook03-04. html). What we need to understand is that with alter degrees of conduct, it should be understood that law enforcement will receive mixed reviews. one day officers are being publicized as heroes, like the praise th ey received after September eleventh, while on the next, they are envisioned as racist, brutal, and authoritarian (www. focusanthro. org/essays/cook03-04. html). I feel that it adds a tremendous amount of stress when you are doing a job that does not have constant public support. It adds to their stress level because there is a negative and disrespectful image of law enforcement officers in our society (www. focusanthro. org/essays/cook03-04. html). I just do not understand why we have such a low level of respect for our police officers.Maybe it is because of the money that capital of the Bahamas and Suffolk police make. Although we can not really make that argument for the New York Police Department, because as we all know they are grossly underpaid for the job that they do. A lot of times the stress of a police officer is brought upon them at the Police Academy. Leah states that while in the academy, training officers constantly actuate the recruits that they are personally liab le for their actions once they are out on the field (www. focusanthro. org/essays/cook03-04. html) . They are told stories of how cops are sued, became alcoholics, druggies, wife beaters and even worse committed suicide (www. focusanthro. org/essays/cook03-04. html). The trainers are basically not exchange the job well, and sending new officers out there with low morale. I think it is a good thing that the trainers are telling new recruits how it really is. However if it is going to hinder the morale of your newest officers, then maybe there is a better way to get the message across. I do not know if I would feel comfortable in a new situation, with all that is being thrown at me, to be told of these other officers.I would personally find it extremely stressful to know that this could happen to me. It is like they are adding the first layer of stress, when there is just going to be tons more thrown at them, the second they hit the streets. Knowing what we now know, I feel I was su ccessfully able to articulate the stresses of police work. It can be hard for some officers to be out on the street dealing with criminals every night. It is tough on your marriage, when you are working shifts that make it hard to see your family. It is stressful when your marriage falls apart.Some officers will slip into that state of alcoholism, some will become druggies. We will always have that threat of an officer committing suicide. However for the officers that are out there, who love their jobs, I think that stress is more than manageable. We have to know that we can go home at night, and speak with our spouse. Do not shut them out of your lives. Be open about the way you are feeling, and speak when you feel things are getting to be too much. Someone will always be there for you. We just need you to open the door.