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Alejandra Sánchez

Dr. William Nolen

English 1302-224

22 March 2022

The Psychological Effects of Working in Law Enforcement

Law enforcement is a public service profession needed to control and maintain the

behavior of society. In everyday situations, they experience traumatic and stressful events of

crimes. Much of these experiences might be detrimental to law enforcement officers’ mental

health and it can lead to emotional and physical prolonged problems if left untreated. The issue

faced in today’s society is the stigma surrounding mental health and receiving treatment for it.

More specifically, stigma is strongest in the law enforcement field. Six sources were analyzed

that discuss the issues concerning the obligations of law enforcement, the toll on their mental

health from those obligations, and why officers refuse to get professional mental help.

It can be inferred that law enforcement officers can be exposed to traumatic events by

responding to some of the most dangerous situations. This can bring about psychological

symptoms if officers don’t know how to cope with their emotions. Officers who do have some of

these symptoms resort to self-coping mechanisms to avoid seeking professional help and are

usually detrimental to them. For example, Velazquez and Hernandez concluded that officers

were “more likely to use alcohol to cope with their problems” (720). As first responders, law

enforcement sees many accidents and lethal situations first-hand. Velazquez and Hernandez note

that the frequent exposure to these types of situations builds cumulative trauma (712). While this

can be perceived as building an officer’s character as “tougher”, this can develop long-term

symptoms. In Copenhaver’s and Tewksbury’s study to identify factors that would help facilitate
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seeking mental health for law enforcement, they note that if depression is left untreated, it

reduces years of life (63). Additionally, it can affect their performance in their job by not

meeting daily demands, experiencing burnout, mistakes, and officer misconduct (63).

Cumulative stress can also lead to physical symptoms (Velazquez and Hernandez 713). Avdi

Avdija mentions how officers already face physical discomforts from their job. For example,

officers patrolling experience back pain from prolonged hours of driving and developing high

blood pressure (108). Most if not all of these symptoms require professional help. The results of

not seeking aid can result in poor coping mechanisms, worsening psychological and physical

disorders.

While officers may be aware of the psychological effects caused by their job, the stigma

of seeking mental help discourages officers to do so. As per Chelsea Wheeler’s research of the

public’s view on law enforcement personnel receiving mental help, she and others identified two

types of stigmas-- public and self-stigma (Wheeler et.al 2). They explain how self-stigma stems

from public stigma. Stigma, in general, can diminish self-esteem, especially to officers who may

be perceived as being “weak” in the eyes of the public for getting mental help (Velazquez and

Hernandez 717). Additionally, Allen Copenhaver and Richard Tewksbury identified self-

legitimacy as an important factor for officers to justify their authority. By the authors, self-

legitimacy is defined as “‘power-holders’ recognition of, or confidence in, their own individual

entitlement to power’” (Copenhaver and Tewksbury 62). If officers don’t believe that the public

trusts them to perform their job by seeking mental help, their self-legitimacy suffers which

results in lasting mental health conditions being left untreated to not be seen as “weak” but rather

trusted to do their job. Besides public stigma, there is stigma between officers. Officers fear that

they will be seen as unreliable and untrustworthy by their partners or be viewed as a threat by
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their administration that can result in them losing their job (Wheeler et. al 3). In general, mental

health can be a very taboo subject, and receiving help can be discouraged by this view. Law

enforcement specifically faces stigma from the public and officers fear they will not be trusted

by them or their coworkers to fulfill their job’s demands. As a result, they do not seek help and

their psychological conditions only worsen over time.

Mental illness can degrade a person and be detrimental. Violanti and Steege discuss the

effects of frequent exposure to violence experienced by officers, one of which is suicidal

ideation. Suicide, in general, is a problem in today’s society, and law enforcement are

statistically more vulnerable to that risk. Law enforcement is “69% more likely to die of suicide”

(Violanti and Steege 19). Ramchand and others interviewed 117 agencies, and officers responded

that there were “‘minimal’ services” for mental help from a few of those agencies (Ramchand

et.al 55). Brooks-Russell and others bring a very important idea to the table: storing law

enforcement officers’ firearms to diminish their chances of suicide. The authors explore this idea

and why it is not being highly implemented. They surveyed 448 law enforcement agencies of

which about 75% of them offered this service (Ramchand et. al. 287). However, not all agencies

had enough space to store so many weapons, lacked staff training, and some federal laws got in

the way of providing storage (287). While this is an interesting initiative, it is unfortunate that

there are so many obstacles from implementing this intervention program. Additionally, the

storing of that many weapons would be a great responsibility and would require training that is

not highly offered as stated by Brooks-Russell and his peers.

While most of the articles revealed that agencies have and implement intervention

programs concerning mental health, officers are still stigmatized within the law enforcement

field and fear of not being perceived as reliable by making use of these programs. For example,
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Velazquez and Hernandez disclose that while some agencies provided wellness programs, they

had a “minimal impact” because “officers (were) not participating with full disclosure” (720).

Again, officers fear the consequences of opening up and resulting in being seen as unreliable.

However, the authors concluded that mobile developments were much more helpful than

intervention programs. For example, the “PTSD Coach” and “Smart Assessment on Your

Mobile” apps were successful in aiding officers in mental health. These apps educated, aided,

and provided helpful coping mechanisms to its users. The authors state how “such applications

are convenient in the sense that individuals who use it would not be disclosing their symptoms to

an actual person” and as a result, it would be easier to access help whiling reducing stigma

(Velazquez and Hernandez 720). Living in a technologically advanced society today can come

with many advantages. As seen, the stigma of seeking mental help is heightened by people,

however, these technological tools aid in getting mental help through a screen without the stigma

faced by in-person help.

All of the authors focused on the psychological effects of being a law enforcement

officer. Officers deal with violence and trauma almost on a daily basis and can elicit cumulative

trauma and other mental disorders such as depression, PTSD, and suicidal ideation. In order to

persevere from these disorders for their well-being, professional help is required. However, the

concurring obstacle from receiving help is the stigma associated with it. As a result, law

enforcement officers’ psychological symptoms are left untreated and further progress. While

there are intervention programs in place in some agencies, the stigma within agencies prevents

in-person programs from being effective. However, it was revealed by one article that mobile aid

was seen as successful. It is important to normalize seeking mental help to the general public and
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especially to law enforcement for them to be able to fulfill their job’s demands adequately and

learn to cope with the experiences of their job.

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Work Cited

Avdija, Avdi S. “Stress and Law Enforcers: Testing the Relationship between Law Enforcement

Work Stressors and Health-Related Issues.” Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine,

vol. 2, no. 1, 2014, pp. 100–110., https://doi.org/10.1080/21642850.2013.878657.

Brooks-Russell, Ashley, et al. “Law Enforcement Agencies’ Perceptions of the Benefits of and

Barriers to Temporary Firearm Storage to Prevent Suicide.” American Journal of Public

Health, vol. 109, no. 2, 2019, pp. 285–288., https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2018.304802.

Copenhaver, A., & Tewksbury, R. (2017). Predicting State Police Officer Willingness to Seek

Professional Help for Depression Scholastica. Retrieved March 8, 2022, from

https://ccjls.scholasticahq.com/api/v1/articles/3446-predicting-state-police-officer-

willingness-to-seek-professional-help-for-depression.pdf

Ramchand, Rajeev, et al. “Suicide Prevention in U.S. Law Enforcement Agencies: A National

Survey of Current Practices.” Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, vol. 34, no. 1,

2018, pp. 55–66., https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-018-9269-x.

Wheeler, Chelsea, et al. “Stigmatizing Attitudes toward Police Officers Seeking Psychological

Services.” Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, vol. 36, no. 1, 2018, pp. 1–7.,

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-018-9293-x.

Velazquez, Elizabeth, and Maria Hernandez. “Effects of Police Officer Exposure to Traumatic

Experiences and Recognizing the Stigma Associated with Police Officer Mental Health.”
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Policing: An International Journal, vol. 42, no. 4, 2019, pp. 711–724.,

https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm-09-2018-0147.