By Michelle M. Lilly, Ph.D.
Every day, police officers put on a uniform and are tasked with enforcing local and state law, responding to accidents, violence, tragedy and life-or-death situations. Every day, police officers put their own lives at risk to serve and protect the public.
Officers are doing this life-saving work amid chronic under-staffing that has worsened since 2020. This decreased staffing coincided with an increase in the crime rate, which rose sharply from 2020 to 2022. Recurrent exposure to stressful and distressing incidents, irregular and long work hours, and negative perceptions from the public have contributed to a work environment in which officers sacrifice their emotional and physical health to meet the needs of the public. It is therefore no surprise that law enforcement officers continue to be at enhanced risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, substance abuse, burnout, moral injury and poor physical health compared to the general public. [1-8]
Police1’s “What Cops Want in 2024” survey asked police officers to identify the central work-related challenges they experience in regard to physical and mental health. It was unsurprising to learn that 82% of respondents work in understaffed agencies. This presents a primary barrier to enhanced wellness, with 86% of respondents indicating that understaffing impacts their ability to take time for wellness-related activities or breaks.
The consequences of the current work environment must be critically examined and addressed. Among respondents, 93% reported that they agree or strongly agree that their overall personal wellness impacts their job performance. Further, 40% of respondents reported that they have experienced a “near miss” at work due to stress and fatigue. An alarming 16% of respondents endorsed having experienced thoughts of suicide in the past year alone. This article summarizes survey results around mental wellbeing with considerations for how to move forward.
Mental wellness
A total of 35% of officers rated their mental wellness as average or below. Officers made clear the importance of mental wellness in regard to their job performance, with 83% of respondents indicating that they agree or strongly agree that their mental wellness impacts their performance as a police officer.
Many barriers perceived to negatively impact mental wellness were endorsed. These barriers are long or irregular work hours (61%), understaffing (60%), work-life balance challenges (59%), high-stress situations (58%), cumulative trauma (57%), exposure to critical incidents (56%), poor quality of leadership (50%), public perception and scrutiny (49%), lack of leadership support (44%) and lack of support resources (24%).
Approximately 50% of officers were neutral or disagreed that they are adequately trained to manage the mental health aspects of their job. These results are concerning, as respondents were asked to report how work-related stress affects them. Respondents indicated that work-related stress has affected the following: sleep (70%), feelings of anger (50%), arguments, conflicts, and tension with family and friends (50%), symptoms of depression (39%), symptoms of anxiety or panic (36%), symptoms of PTSD (35%) and more alcohol consumption to cope with the stress (29%). While this does not mean that 35% of respondents are self-reporting PTSD, it does mean that respondents draw a strong connection between work-related stress and symptoms of various mental health conditions.
The largest barrier to taking steps for better mental health was a lack of time due to work and personal commitments.
Seeking help and resources
Many respondents reported openness to talking to someone about work-related stress. For instance, respondents reported that they frequently or sometimes (72%) feel that it would be helpful to talk to someone. Unfortunately, a much smaller number actually do it. Only 51% of respondents frequently or sometimes speak with someone about their work-related stress, while 49% rarely or never talk with anyone. The largest barrier to taking steps for better mental health was a lack of time due to work and personal commitments.
The majority of agencies offer at least one form of service to enhance mental wellness among employees, including employee assistance programs (61%), peer support (60%), debriefing (54%), and faith-based services (51%). Among those who did access resources, the most common service was individual counseling.
When asked what strategies were most effective in enhancing mental wellness, the most frequently endorsed strategy was increased communication with fellow officers. Despite the fact that it was the most frequently endorsed strategy, only 26% reported engaging in that behavior. This may be because 47% of respondents were neutral or negative when asked whether co-workers within their agency support each other. Further, 79% reported that there is significant stigma surrounding seeking mental wellness support.
When asked what would be most beneficial to support mental wellness, respondents reported that counseling sessions with a culturally competent provider would be the most beneficial, followed by peer support and resilience training.
Addressing media and public negativity
While many officers in the current study reported moderate to high levels of satisfaction with their career, many officers reported dissatisfaction, intention to leave, poor physical health, limited sleep and diminished mental wellness. When asked what are the least satisfying aspects of work within law enforcement, the most frequently endorsed factors included negativity from the media and the general public. This is a difficult factor to tackle and requires ongoing positive relations between police departments and their local communities. Agencies may start by sharing through local media the many events that occur daily in the community in which law enforcement officers successfully serve their community.
Respondents uniformly reported that they cannot prioritize health due to personal and work commitments.
Normalizing help-seeking
The vast majority of respondents work in agencies experiencing understaffing. This has very real and direct implications for employees, as respondents uniformly reported that they cannot prioritize health due to personal and work commitments. Amid rampant understaffing, officers have been asked, and often mandated, to work long hours over the past five years. Until staffing is prioritized and successfully executed, officers’ struggles to prioritize their wellness will continue.
While relationships with the public and understaffing were primary sources of dissatisfaction, 54% of respondents reported that poor agency leadership is a significant source of job dissatisfaction. It is not uncommon for people to dislike or disagree with the leadership of their employer. When you add in a stressful, high-stakes job, it enhances the likelihood of tension within and across rank.
It is imperative that the leaders within an agency work to get an accurate understanding of the current health of their employees, identify services that will be utilized and trusted, and actively facilitate open dialogue and help-seeking among their employees. To that end, agencies must normalize help-seeking. The longstanding coping strategy of “suck it up” does not work, particularly with a younger generation for whom discussion of mental health and help-seeking has become normalized through outlets such as social media. Whether they have ever engaged in help-seeking, or quite frankly believe in it, leadership must facilitate, support and not denigrate help-seeking behavior.
Improving EAP programs
A total of 83% of respondents indicated that they agree that their mental wellness impacts their performance as a police officer. Many agencies make earnest or perfunctory efforts to enhance mental wellness by offering an employee assistance program (EAP). Yet, 35% of respondents reported that their EAP cannot be trusted to support them, and an additional 39% reported ambivalence as to whether they can trust their EAP. Concerns related to EAPs include the time required to get an appointment, lack of culturally competent clinicians and fears related to confidentiality.
As an alternative, many agencies opt for a retainer system in which a culturally competent clinician works directly with an agency. In these arrangements, employees typically reach out directly to providers and agencies are not provided information regarding who seeks services, dates of service, or content discussed unless there are issues of suicide risk or criminal activity. Many agencies find success with such systems, as “finding a culturally competent provider” was the most frequently endorsed strategy that officers reported would best support their mental wellness. Even in the absence of a diagnosable condition (i.e., PTSD, depression, anxiety), officers face many stressful and potentially distressing events that could benefit from discussion with a counselor. Instead, many officers allow experiences and feelings to become bottled up until they become unmanageable.
Prioritizing physical fitness
More concrete recommendations stemming from the current survey include ensuring access to information regarding nutrition, but especially providing access to a gym.
In the current survey, 29% of agencies have a gym and allow officers to work out during duty hours, while another 36% have a gym but do not allow officers to work out during duty hours. Statistical analyses showed that respondents who endorsed having the opportunity to work out while on shift had better physical health, sleep, and nutrition in the current sample.
Physical fitness is critical to police work. If it were not, there would not be fitness standards adopted during the hiring process. Yet, the long work hours, stress of the job, shift work schedules and availability of (and sometimes necessity to consume) convenience food prevents many officers from being able to retain good physical health. This is critically important, as a recent article shows that physical fitness directly impacts performance among police officers. [9]
Conclusion
The past four years have presented numerous challenges to law enforcement. Tension with the public and widespread understaffing have taken a toll on the wellness of current officers and the ability to recruit promising candidates. An epidemic of suicide among law enforcement has gained increasing attention, and an alarming 16% of respondents in this survey have experienced thoughts of suicide or feeling indifferent to the value of life in the past year. Without focused and proactive attempts to enhance and safeguard the mental and physical health of officers, the epidemic will continue and may even worsen.
When asked why respondents in the current survey picked this job, it is clear that many entered this profession because it aligned with noble values. The top three endorsed reasons included helping people, serving one’s community, and fighting crime. While officers may have experienced challenges to these core values across their career, agencies can remind their employees of these values by pointing out the positive, celebrating the “wins,” and caring for their employees.
References
1. Soravia LM. (2021). Rescuers at risk: Posttraumatic stress symptoms among police officers, fire fighters, ambulance personnel, and emergency and psychiatric nurses. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 1-10.
2. Hartley TA. (2011). Health disparities in police officers: Comparisons to the US general population. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 211-220.
3. Civilotti CA. (2022). Hopelessness in police officers and its association with depression and burnout: A pilot study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, online.
4. Tappenden PC. (2023). Examining the psychometric properties of the expressions of moral injury scale in a sample of first responders. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, online.
5. Jetelina KK. (2020). Prevalence of mental illness and mental health care use among police officers. JAMA Network Open, 658-670.
6. Lilly MM. (2020). Mental health training and intervention: A critical component of police reform.
7. Shabeer SA. (2020). Global prevalence and risk factors for mental health problems in police personnel. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 737-747.
8. Frick KA. (2024). Age-related declines in health and fitness among law enforcement officers compared to population norms. Healthcare, 714.
9. Dicks ND. (2023). Contributions from incumbent police officer’s physical activity and body composition to occupational assessment performance. Frontiers in Public Health, online.
Additional resources
Reffi AN. (2023). Fear of sleep in first responders: associations with trauma types, psychopathology, and sleep disturbances. Sleep Advances, online.
Garbarino SG. (2019). Sleep quality among police officers: Implications and insight from a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature. Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, online.
About the author
Dr. Michelle Lilly is co-director of the Training and Research Institute for Public Safety (TRIPS) and an associate professor of clinical psychology at Northern Illinois University. Contact her at mlilly1@niu.edu.
