by ANDY SEVILLA
Law enforcement can be perilous work, but the dangers go beyond the streets alone.
Shootings, murders, homicides, rapes, abuse, thefts, wrecks, deaths and catastrophes, among a plethora of other predicaments, are situations any given police officer could have to deal with within an instant. And those dealings could eventually take their toll on first responders.
The Science Daily reports that the pressures of law enforcement springboards officers to risks of high blood pressure, insomnia, increased levels of destructive stress hormones, heart problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide, according to a decade of studies by University at Buffalo (UB) researchers.
Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett said his officers have around-the-clock resources, such as the city’s employee assistance program and the San Marcos Police Department’s chaplain, available at the local and state level should any of them have mental or physical health needs.
Barnett said officers undergo a fitness for duty evaluation, which includes both mental and physical health, before attending the police academy, and that officers interested in employment in Kyle also undergo an evaluation before hire.
“Policing is a psychologically stressful work environment filled with danger, high demands, ambiguity in work encounters, human misery and exposure to death,” the Science Daily quoted John M. Violanti, Ph.D., a research associate professor in UB’s Department of Social and Preventative Medicine, in a 2008 article.
“When cortisol (also known as the ‘stress hormone’) becomes dysregulated due to chronic stress, it opens a person to disease. The body becomes physiologically unbalanced, organs are attacked, and the immune system is compromised as well,” the Science Daily quoted Violanti as saying, who was using measures of cortisol to determine if stress is associated with physiological risk factors that can lead to serious health problems.
Barnett said Kyle officers have, in the past, been recommended for fitness for duty evaluation based on either physical or mental health assessment. He said that since he took on the chief post nearly two years ago, at least one officer has been evaluated for fitness for duty, though he would not comment on any specifics.
Barnett said that when he recommends one of his officers for evaluation, he follows Civil Service rules.
Per Section 143.081 of the Texas Local Government Code, if a question arises as to whether an officer is physically or mentally fit to continue in their capacity, then the officer will need to submit a report to the commission from the officer’s personal physician, psychiatrist or psychologist, as appropriate.
The Code goes on to say that if the commission, department head, or officer disagree with the report, then the commission will appoint a physician, psychiatrist or psychologist, as appropriate, to examine the officer and submit a new report.
If the original report and the second report do not coincide, then the commission will appoint a three-member board composed of a physician, a psychiatrist and a psychologist, or any combination, as appropriate, to examine the officer. Their findings will then determine the officer’s fitness for duty.
Beyond the stress officers endure on the job, a University of Iowa (UI) 2012 report found that officers need sleep for health and performance.
UI’s report, “The effect of work shift and sleep duration on various aspects of police officers’ health,” is the first peer-reviewed look at differences in duration and quality of sleep as it relates to shift work and health risks in the police force, according to the Science Daily.
The report found that officers who sleep fewer than six hours per night are more susceptible to chronic fatigue and health problems, according a July 2012 Science Daily article. Also, the sleep loss could affect officers’ job abilities, thus affecting public safety.
In Kyle, officers out on the street work 84 hours every two weeks, they are assigned 12-hour rotating shifts – some are during the day while others are overnight. Detectives and other office officers work four 10-hour or five 8-hour shifts per week.
Violanti said the negative effects of stress in officers must be “acknowledged, de-stigmatized and treated” and instead used as an opportunity for growth, according to the Science Daily.
“Intervention is necessary to help officers deal with this difficult and stressful occupation,” the Science Daily quoted Violanti as saying. “We want to educate them on now to survive 25 years of police work. They need to learn how to relax, how to think differently about things they experience as a cop. There is such a thing as post-traumatic growth. People can grow in a positive way and be better cops and persons after they survive the trauma of police work. That is an important message.”
