The perception of stressors among police personnel: Looking at the operational and organizational aspects of police work in suburban departments
Abstract
Police officers experience various stressors as part of their professional responsibilities. This study examines the perception of stressors by looking at operational and organizational aspects of police work among suburban departments. Sources of police stressors were measured from a sample of 42 suburban police officers from the Brentwood and Franklin Tennessee Police Departments. Data was collected using Spielberger's 60 item Police Stress Survey. A mean ranking of organizational and operational stressors were presented for the entire sample as well as various ranks, age, gender, race, length of service, education, and marital status. Results indicated operational aspects more stressful than organizational characteristics of police work in suburban police departments. The top two ranked police stressors were fellow officer killed and killing someone in the line of duty. Excessive discipline closely followed by politics within the department, inadequate salary, and shift work were the top organizational issues considered stressful by the sample. Length of Service and education were found to have a statistically significant correlation among the demographics measured.
Subject Area
Law
Recommended Citation
Chase Burnett,
"The perception of stressors among police personnel: Looking at the operational and organizational aspects of police work in suburban departments"
(2009).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI1529285.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI1529285