Police Officers Mental Health

Mental health of police officers continues to be an issue of global concern as many police officers have fallen victims to mental disorders. Law enforcers are exposed to work that leads to an increase in various stress forms, including anticipatory stress, physical and psychological stress (Jetelina et al., 2020). Police officers are mandated to ensure the community's wellbeing by providing their security and attending to the community's urgent needs. Thus, they are repeatedly exposed to service traumatic service calls, including domestic violence cases, homicides, child abuse, and any form of accidents. The law enforcers repeatedly tend to these events and stressors, which may lead to mental illness development like somatization, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression. These effects can all be classified under PTSD as they occur after the police officer has repeatedly been exposed to stressful incidents. In 2009, Suicidal deaths in the New York police department were twice as many compared to those arising in line of duty. Therefore, the police force is among the forces at a high risk of developing mental disorders from many potential traumatic and critical events they come across during their careers. Among law enforcers its is only the army that precedes the police force in terms of PTSD, since in recent years, many police officers have experience mental health challenges. Mental illnesses have many effects, including suicide, social conflicts, legal issues, social isolation, and drug abuse ( Pilgrim, 2019). Most police officers are unaware of the dangers of mental health thus do not involve in activities that test mental stability and ignore the symptoms of mental illnesses. Thus, mental illnesses have become a matter of concern in the police forces. 

Causes of Mental Illnesses in the Police Force 

Policing stressors can be subdivided into organizational and operational stressors. Operational stressors include daily traumatic encounters, police-citizen encounters, and conflict of interest. Organizational stressors include working hours, corporate setting, and leadership style (Queiros et al., 2020). Training is also among the primary stressors of law enforcers. The primary cause of mental illnesses is the citizen police encounters where the police have to deal with different traumatic encounters every day. Police officers’ responsibilities and roles place them in stressful and challenging situations that at times impact their performance and mental health. Research conducted by Demou et al. (2020) involving 30 superintendents indicates that for every five police officers, two are affected by PTSD. During the interviews, a female officer indicated t hat an encounter they dealt with, including a young boy who was hit by a car while playing beside a road, heavily stressed her since she pictured her son in a similar accident while playing. She thought of what would happen if her young son was in such an accident, which have her start experiencing anxiety attacks. A large number of law enforcers indicated that they often think about homicides and accidents they had to deal with images of dead bodies recurring in their minds from time to time. When dealing with homicides, some police officers get obsessed with the case since they feel unfulfilled without finding justice for the affected. 

The research indicates that it might take long before an incident affects officers. Many police officers have reported mental illness long after the incident encounter. According to Demou et al. (2020), one of the officers interviewed during the investigation shows that he dealt with an incident involving a fatal accident between a little girl and him. He solved the issue and focused on work, and everything was all good for years until she got a daughter. The officer indicates that he was laying his daughter to bed; he saw the girl face when he looked at his daughter. This heavily affected his mental health, where he fell into depression and could not hold things together. This affected his relations with his family and at work, where he could not focus in the line of duty (Queiros et al., 2020). Domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse are among the significant ills facing the s ociety today. Police officers have to deal with such issues in the community. However, such vises affect the mental stability of the officers as some cases are exceedingly gruesome and traumatizing. Edwards (2020) indicates that most police officers are faced with events that affect their mental health either for a short period or for a lifetime, depending on an individual's resilience ability. Different encounters, especially homicides, sexual assault, and accidents, are the leading triggering effect of mental illnesses globally. 

Citizen-police encounters put many police officers in a dilemma trying to decide the course o f action they are to take. Police discretion is where police officers are granted some leeway that they can depend on when making decisions that impact their policing. Some police officers misuse this power by making decisions that don't factor in the wellbeing of the suspect. Comparatively, policing discretion creates a mental conflict in some police officers as they are not sure of the best tactic to handle a situation that will not harm the suspect. Some legal enforcers use force knowingly when making arrests that injure the victims and even lead to death. Depression is linked to such deeds where the legal enforcer feels guilty of what they did and even has a visual hallucination of the incident ( Pilgrim, 2019) . This leads to a mental disorder that affects how a police officer arrests the future. When making an arrest, the police officer might be forced to use violence or even shoot to kill in cases of the offender portrays violent behavior or draws a gun to kill the police officer. Despite that the citizen's deeds might have forced the official actions, some officers find it hard to coup with such a situation. It can have adverse mental effects on police officers since they keep thinking about such incidents, eventually leading to PTSD. Many police officers commit suicide; thus, trying to redeem themselves from the deed despite that it was forced. 

Law enforcers often are conflicted on what to give when addressing various encounters. When a police officer is faced with a situation, for example, a kid and mother who needs to both be saved from a fire, they will have challenges deciding who to save first. If the officer saves the child first and the mother succumbs to the fire, the officer will be guilty of not fulfilling his/her duty. When dealing with adverse cases such as sexual assault, an officer who has been a victim or has someone close to them domestically or sexually assaulted might use excessive force when arresting the offender, which might lead to the offender's death. The incident can also be a triggering factor that can lead to depression. Many members of the community dislike the police force as they are perceived to mean harm and not to solve the general public problems. In the United States, police officers face discrimination in their neighborhoods and along the streets as fewer people want to be associated with them. According to Quieros et al. (2020), many police officers lack social relations out of office as members of society dislike them. In a black-dominated community in the United States, police officers are perceived to make decisions depending on race or skin color. In the recent past, police officers have been associated with gruesome murders of innocent civilians, such as George Floyd's case. Social life is critical in every individual’s life, especially for police officers, since through talking, they can tell their thoughts, helping them relieve stress from their incidences. Lack of a healthy social life for police officers is associated with anxiety attacks and depression amongst police officers. 

Police go through physical, psychological, and physical training before they are let out to the public. It involves exposure to different events that one might face in the line of duty, such as dead bodies and gunshots. The thought that one might have to kill people in the line of duty during training can lead to anxiety attacks as they fear. During the line of duty, some police officers hesitate to shoot armed law offenders, which sometimes leaves them injured or even costs their lives. Leadership is critical in all organizations as subordinates need to be instructed on various on duty they are supposed to implement. Some policing departments have authoritarian leadership where officers are forced beyond their capacity when there is job pressure. According to Edwards (2020), when there is a surge in crime rates in a particular area, some police leaders pile pressure on the junior officers where they are forced to work even on cases they are not fit. The pressure and fear of underperforming can lead to stress due to the work environment where some can even resign or expose themselves to dangerous situations that might cost their lives to achieve the overwhelming task they were assigned. Leadership and the organizational setting can have negative impacts on the mental health of an officer. 

Policing is one of the most demanding jobs as it requires an officer always to be available if needed. From research conducted by Queirós et al. (2020), it was found that depression and anxiety were prominent issues of concern as most officers reported that policing was highly demanding and, despite their efforts, they felt undervalued. Some operational experiences directly affect officers leading to guilt and fear, which are primary sources of anxiety and depression, such as when an officer's colleague is murder right in front of them or while trying to save them. Most officers develop PTSD after such instances where their superiors are forced to give them some time off duty to recover. It is hard to maintain a work-life balance which heavily affects an individual’s mental health. In Queiros et al.'s (2020) research, an officer indicates that he would arrive home and find his child already asleep. He would then wake up and leave for work before his kid was up, which negatively affected his family since the kid lacked the fatherly figure in her life. Police officers depending on urgency, at times, work continuously without rest for even 72 hours. They are forced to work late at night during which limits their resting time. Working without rest can lead to depression of officers and deterioration of performance due to fatigue. 

A Biblical Perspective 

A Christian devoted Christian will face challenges during the execution of his/her duties as there might be a need to do unGodly things. Police officers are law enforcers tasked with the arrest and identification of criminals within society. Sometimes, police officers are forced to kill or use excessive force when making arrests which goes against the norms of Christianity. One of the biblical commandments in the book of Exodus passed to humans from God through Mosses indicates that “though shall not kill," meaning that a human doesn't possess the power to take another being's life as that power belongs to God (Luther). This leads to a conflict of religion and work since police work requires a police officer to make quick decisions that may hurt or even kill others if need be. In the line of duty, a police officer cannot be merciful, especially for armed criminals, as hesitation to shoot, for instance, would cost the police officer his/her life. Justice in the biblical context defers from real life, as offenders have to be punished for their actions through imprisonment or fines. Christianity requires one to let God punish their offenders as humans should not avenge the actions of others. In Luke 17:4, Jesus says that we should forgive those who as many times as possible and forget it; thus, we short start forgiving every time we forgive (Willmington, 2018). A police officer will feel guilty and stressed if forced to do unchristian things as they will be going against the will of God. This affects a law enforcer mentally and performance-wise as there will be a lot of mistakes at work and less capability to protect the community from law offenders. 

Symptoms and Effects of Mental Illnesses in the police force 

There are many types of mental illnesses, including depression, addictive behaviors, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders, all of which can affect police officers. During the early stages of mental disorders, it is hard to feel or see the symptoms which lead to adverse effects of the illnesses as they are not detected during the initial stages. Mental illnesses can make an officer's life miserable, and daily life problems affecting performance. The symptoms affect an officer’s thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. During the first stages, the officers start feeling down or sad resulting from an encounter such as a homicide case, reducing their concentration ability. The officers cannot make quick and correct decisions as they cannot think straight, which can lead to severe implications, especially in the line of duty. In cases where officers feel like they failed to complete their obligation, such as saving their colleague or a civilian in danger, an officer developers guilt feelings leading to anxiety disorder and depression. As seen in Quieros et al. (2020) research, officers with mental illnesses experience excessive worries or fears because of an incident they handled, and they are afraid it might happen to them or someone close to them. Social life drastically reduces where individuals who are likely to or are experiencing a mental health challenge seclude themselves from the general public, colleagues, friends, or family. In the adverse stages, officers can start hallucinating where they see images of cases they have handled and develop paranoia. Trying to fight the anxiety, paranoia, and illusions, they become addicted to drugs and alcohol. 

Officers might develop violent behaviors both at home or at work where they use unnecessary force when making arrests or even unwilling to cause the death of innocent lives. The final symptom of mental disorders is suicidal thoughts. Guilt, anxiety, and hallucinations can become unbearable where an officer starts to feel like the only solution is by committing suicide to end the pain they are going through. Symptoms defer depending on a mental illness, thus affecting officers differently. Some symptoms take long to manifest where an officer might think they got over an incident such as criminal murder, but a mental disorder explodes upon experiencing a triggering factor (Woo, 2016). Effects of mental disorders in police officers depend on resilience at the individual level. Untreated mental health issues often lead to severe behavioral, physical, and emotional health complications. It is perceived that the easiest method to forget or overcome depression and anxiety attacks is alcoholism and drug abuse. According to van der Velden et al. (2013), officers start abusing drugs and alcoholism and drug abuse, leading to underperformance and bankruptcy. Many police officers have been arrested admitted to mental health facilities resulting from illegal drug abuse, while others have lost their jobs and families. Mental issues lead to reduced life enjoyment which leads to social seclusion. Due to an unhappy personality, colleagues at work and friends tend to isolate depressed officers, leading to suicide as they feel unwanted by the people around them. Due to the development of violent behavior and vises such as drug abuse, officers often conflict with their families were at adverse stages can lead to domestic violence, thus attracting legal issues. Some mental disorders such as fear and anxiety can lead to cardiac problems, wherein extreme cases can result in death from cardiac arrest. 

Mental Illnesses Prevention Mechanism 

Police mental health risks are a matter of urgency that has led to the development of screening departments in different police departments. Health illness in police departments has surged, with many police committing suicide resulting from depression and PTSD. One of the primary reasons mental disorder problems have increased in police departments is the lack of knowledge of possible risks of mental health amongst law enforcers due to their job nature. Many officers ignore some trauma symptoms, thinking it's normal or they'll get over it, but with time builds to a mental disorder. Workplace mental screening is critical as it helps identify mental illnesses and their triggering factors. According to Marshall et al. (2021), screening targets to identify police officers developing mental disorders symptoms to provide interventions that are evidence-based and timely support to affected officers. It enables law enforcers to remain mentally healthy despite their daily encounters or working condition, such as working two shifts a day. Even though workplace mental screening has helped many officers cope with different encounters at the line of duty, it only solves the present problem without predicting possible future mental health issues. Police officers under-report symptoms leading to infectiveness of screening since they are aware their superiors will see the data on their responses. According to research conducted by Marshall et al. (2021), police officers with extreme PTSD symptoms mostly under-report, meaning that the ones who need help most are least likely to be identified and helped. 

There is a rising need for police departments to have mental health trainers and therapists who attend to the mental needs of police officers. Many police officers don't seek mental health assistance to protect their integrity since they are perceived to be robust and resilient. When there are mental therapists with police departments, officers will not need to outsource mental health services, thus increase the number of officers seeking to service, leading to a reduction in such instances. Leaders need to ensure they provide a good working environment for officers to prevent cases from arising from the work environment. They should also identify major triggering factors of PTSD amongst police officers and develop mitigating mechanisms. The police force should have training sessions, mainly focusing on their mental health risks and what they need to do to avoid developing mental disorders (van der Meulen et al., 2018). Police officers should take the responsibility of ensuring they are mentally safe by seeking medical assistance as soon as they experience symptoms to prevent the problem from amplifying to an uncontrollable stage. It is also critical for police officers to find a balance between religion and work as both are for the general wellbeing of the women and men they protect. 

Conclusion 

First responders are the individuals at most risk of developing mental disorders, with police officers falling under this bracket. The responsibilities and roles of law enforcers place them in a stressful and challenging situation which can significantly alter their performance and mental wellbeing. Police stressors can be classified in two forms, including operation and organizational factors. Police officers daily encounter traumatizing such as homicides, domestic violence, and sexual assault cases. Police officers are often in dilemmas during a civilian encounter as they might be forced to use force to make arrests or even killing the criminals. Religion and law often conflict, which can impair the decisions of a police officer who is a devout Christian as acts such as murder is prohibited in the bible. Police officers are also forced to work under pressure, and long shifts, thus lack life-work balance which could lead to depression. These factors lead to mental disorders among police officers like anxiety disorders, PTSD, and depression. Mental illnesses have different symptoms depending on the problem, such as social isolation, excessive worries and fears, drug abuse and alcoholism, hallucinations, dilutions, and suicidal thoughts. Effects of Mental issues are dependent on resilience at the individual level, where people with less resilience experience adverse effects and even suicidal thoughts. To mitigate the adversity and surge of mental health issues, screening, education, and leadership are critical. Police officers should be screened at specific intervals to help identify mental disorders at their early stages. Law enforcers should be educated on the mental health risk they face, while leaders should create a healthy working environment. 

References 

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