High-Stress Police--It’s More Myth Than Reality

Before pioneer psychologist Hans Selye began studying stress in the 1930s, most job-related emotional problems were dismissed with the simple explanation, “He’s been working too hard.”

And while research has shown that most jobs have their share of pressures, police officers believe that their work is among the most stressful of occupations, with high rates of alcoholism, divorce and job burnout.

“Some of that is myth,” said Dr. Nels Klyver, a psychologist in the behavioral science services section of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“A police officer has the same ups and downs as anyone else, and if it seems he’s more prone to stress, remember that it’s a high-visibility occupation.”

‘Still a Stigma’

Klyver’s main job is counseling police officers in a comfortable Chinatown office several blocks from police headquarters. It is pleasantly furnished and gives no hint of its official function.

“There’s still a stigma attached to an officer who wants counseling, and this allows more privacy,” he said.

“Recently we counseled a policeman and his wife. She’d been raped, and obviously they didn’t want to go to police headquarters to see the psychologist. Too many people around whom he knew.”

Sometimes the pressures of police work can take a toll on the emotional well-being of an officer, he said.

“We try to screen the potential problems at the recruitment level,” Klyver said. “Fewer than 5% of all who apply get to wear the badge.”

Stricter Rules

Tougher screening has been one method used by the department to improve professionalism; another is the adoption of stricter rules than those binding other professions.

These rules have brought with them a new set of stresses almost unknown to old-time cops, whose main qualifications were often merely a strong back, a clean background and reasonable intelligence.

Today, a policeman can find himself in trouble for breaking what the department cryptically calls “turning a business contact into a social contact.”

The pressure created by struggles fitting a personal code with department-prescribed conduct can manifest itself in ways ranging from heavy drinking to pranks like shooting out the street lights.

“But these are cases of opportunity,” Klyver said. “Officers are on a long leash, and they don’t usually do anything that anyone else wouldn’t, given the chance. Just look at the entertainment industry and how it amuses itself.”

The psychologist doubts that police work is any more stressful than other professionals.

Stress From Bureaucracy

“Our research shows that what stress we have usually doesn’t come from the street, but rather from the bureaucracy, like any other large organization,” he said.

“Police officers are action-oriented. The freedom they have on the street is a plus, and a good officer sees his work as a series of challenges and opportunities.

“But let’s say an officer has been in a shooting. It’s sometimes well over a year before the prosecutors are done reviewing it, and meanwhile the officer has to hang there while other people take their time deciding his future.”

Klyver also dismisses the notion that officers are more prone to divorce than other married couples because of the pressures of their jobs, saying statistics indicating a 75% divorce rate are probably an exaggeration.

“It’s not that high, and even if it was, it’s not really abnormal when you consider the overall divorce rate in any urban area,” he said.

“It’s certainly not out of line around here. This is Los Angeles. It’s life in the fast lane and all that.”