Matthew Hanrahan

CRIM-3675-001
Professor Richard Mulvihill
Argumentative Paper Two

Police work is an honorable and prestigious profession that can be extremely rewarding
for the officers. However, with the rewards and responsibilities that come with police work there
are also detriments of the job; a major issue that law enforcement officers face is an
overwhelmingly high level of stress. Many aspects of the job cause stress due to the difficulty of
the occupation. No individual is free of stress, therefore issues in personal lives of officers such
as genetics, health, and economic situation set a foundation for stress.
The life of a police officer revolves around their work; police officers do not have the
luxury of a nine to five job with a permanent schedule. Many departments still have rotating
shifts and this can make it hard for officers to have time for their personal lives. An example is
police officers have an unusually high divorce rate, ranging from fifty to eighty percent. It is
important for officers to hold ties with their personal lives so they are not consumed by the job.
There is a high rate of suicide among police officers, statistics of which are skewed. Many police
suicides are reported as accidents rather than suicides.
With stressors barraging officers simultaneously it can be difficult to not have
consequences on the lives of officers. Negative effects of stress can significantly impact officers
and has been linked to physical and mental problems. It is not uncommon for officers to develop
drinking or drug problems, it is a way for them to cope and escape everything that is going on
around them. These are incorrect methods in dealing with their problems but is a recurring
practice that is seen. Mental effects of stress can cause problems such as posttraumatic stress

disorder and depression. These issues are more than enough to ruin careers if not lives of
officers.
Police work exposes officers to things that normal citizens do not fully experience. One
example of this is that death is prominent, and police officers see it in the most brutal sense of
the word; police officers have to deal with deaths of others in numerous circumstances. This can
range from being called to a scene of a natural death, or witnessing a fellow officer being killed
first hand. Examples in the book state how Daniel E. Steward, a New York City Fire Department
medical technician. He told about how he witnessed the tragic events of 9/11 and saw the
suffering of people facing certain death. Steward bottled up his emotions after seeing such horrid
things and eventually it became too much and he took his own life. Dealing with these things are
very taxing on an emotional level and will cause even the toughest officers to become stressed.
There are certain things that cant be unseen and some people do not have the ability to recover
from them.
Over the years it has become widely more acceptable for police officers to admit they
have feelings and are impacted by their work. In an attempt to combat stress, programs have
been developed to aid officers in dealing with them. The Cop-2-Cop program was designed to
aid in the mental health of officers and to proactively stop suicides. The Cop-2-Cop program
serves as an outlet for cops to talk about their emotions and assess things bothering them rather
than keeping everything inside. Other coping strategies can consist of things such as vacations,
meditation, exercise, and communication. It is now standard for police departments to offer aid
with policies such as stress management training and debriefing assemblies soon after
problematic events.

Stress is a significant factor of police work and if not handled properly can have
detrimental consequences. Police often feel isolated from others and it can make the stress
overbearing. Thankfully, in recent years police coping mechanisms have evolved and it is now
easier than ever for police to seek help. The future of combating stress for law enforcement
officers is looking bright and stress related concerns diminish greatly when people work together.