Stressful experiences of urbanized small town police officers: A case study.

摘要

Few occupations garner as much interest and curiosity as that of the police officer. The popularity and apparently endless fascination with law enforcement gives rise to numerous depictions of the police in movies, in print media, and on television. Popular television shows, such as Brooklyn South, Brooklyn Nine-nine, C.S. I. Miami, C.S.I. NY, NYC 22, NYPD Blue, and LAPD: Life on the Beat often give the impression that police officers only work in big-city police departments and the workplace stress they experience is due to working in such environments. Since most police-stress research involves officers who work in urban police departments, and the majority of officers in the United States do not work in such big-city environments, much of the extant literature on police-workplace stress may be inaccurate. This study identifies a gap in the literature by examining the stress experiences of small town police officers and may add to the existing body of knowledge on police stress. The findings brought about by this research include that urbanized small town police stress comes from the organizational aspects of the work environment. A certain extent of the stress experienced by an officer comes from experiencing a career in law enforcement that differs greatly from what they had expected. Patrol officers and patrol supervisors both describe workplace stress experiences that emanate mainly from the power wielded by the local town board to alter the police department. Finally, there appears to be no psychological support program in place available exclusively for urbanized small town police officers and the specific types of issues they may encounter.