NCJ Number
165966
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 24 Issue: 6 Dated: (1996) Pages: 503-522
Date Published
1996
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Because community policing requires a radically different philosophical and organizational approach than the traditional policing approach and stress may be experienced during organizational change as areas of responsibility and roles are altered, this study had three primary objectives: (1) identify job characteristics police officers and their immediate supervisors considered stressful; (2) assess police officer and supervisor responses to stress; and (3) evaluate the influence of social support systems on these responses.
Abstract
Data were collected from community coordinators, radio response officers, and sergeants of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina. Measured stressors included quantity of work, responsibility for others, role conflict, role ambiguity, recognition from others, participation in decisionmaking, role change, and communications between radio response officers and community coordinators and between police officers and supervisors. Police officers and sergeants reported specific physiological responses, lack of job involvement, and propensity to leave law enforcement, responses that are considered in the literature to be related to stress. Stressors common in law enforcement generally and stressors unique to a police department implementing community policing were significant. Work social support appeared to affect the level of job involvement of police officers. The finding that sergeants did not feel they had work social support may have adversely affected their ability to cope with stress and their willingness to be involved with the job. An appendix tabulates the results of the police officer stress survey. 32 references, 7 tables, and 1 figure