How Does Stress Affect The Police Department

Each year, officers are affected by the stress of their job. Since officers have virtually seen everything from simple robberies to the most gruesome murders, they are more susceptible to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder than those in other lines of work. About seven to nine percent of officers suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, which can lead to suicidal thoughts, substance abuse, depression, and physical health problems among many other things (“The Cop Mind”). Even though many new studies have been released on how stress affects police officers each year, there are still not many preventative measures set up to help combat this issue.

Along with the violence that police officers experience every day, they are also affected by the increasing number of police officers being killed in the line of duty. They are here to serve and protect their communities at any cost. Sadly, one of the consequences of this is death in the line of duty. From the year 2015 to 2016, there was a sixty-one percent increase in officers who were shot and killed and a fifty-three percent increase in

Stress is a broad disease that can cause a lot of harm to the human body, leading to depression, suicidal thoughts, sleep deprivation, substance abuse, obesity, heart disease, and many other things. One big problem in police departments is how often they are exposed to so many emotionally damaging situations: “They ride an emotional and biochemical roller coaster. They experience moments of intense action and alertness, followed by emotional crashes marked by exhaustion, and isolation. They become hypervigilant. Surrounded by crime all day, some come to perceive that society is more threatening than it really is (“The Cop Mind”). This rollercoaster of emotions can tear somebody apart, and unfortunately, in most officers’ cases, it