Effects And Well-Being In Law Enforcement Job: A Case Study Of Baltimore County Police Department

Stress Effects and Well-being in Law enforcement job: a case study of Baltimore County Police Department

Introduction

Stress is body ways of responding to intense pressure which if lasted for long time, will “contribute to hormonal imbalances, immune system collapse, and susceptibility to disease, cancer, and death” (Piotrowski, & Hollar, 2014). Work related stress has been major issue affecting employees, especially law enforcement officer that consequently affect their job performances (Jones, et al 2013). Although, majority of law enforcement officers recognizes that they are under stress but inability to manage or control stress constitute major problems and often lead to more serious issues such as severe illness, depression, absenteeism,

236). Qualitative methods especially one that is based on grounded theories give the researcher the flexibility of maneuvering research frameworks in which new theories are discovered. Using quantitative methods for this study will be difficult because it does not involve much numeric figures rather deals with phenomenon. However, there are some disadvantages associated with qualitative methods such as the inability of the researcher to control the influence of bias and rigidity. Also, qualitative research often is expensive to conduct and requires experience especially in transcribing and coding

Also, due to demanding challenges faced by many police departments, most officers usually stay on the job for more than sixteen hours without enough time to rest and recuperate. Sleep deprivation and improper eating will fuel chronic fatigue among officers, causes enormous stress that can lead to officer’s misconducts at work. Stress is a disease and should be treated as such by employers of labor. Based on these effects of stress, it will be important for administrators to focus more on stress management in order to reduce the police brutalities. Officers suffering from chronic stress may not be able to able to make “split second” decision when it comes to protecting him/herself or even spearing the life of assailant. Managements should endeavor to reorganize the effects of stress on their organization and have appropriate means of dealing with stress among employees. Counseling services should be available to officers who were involves in high risk situations. Employee assistance program should be established to assist officers and their family who are going through difficult