Occupational Stress Levels of Police Officers
The first objective of this study sought to establish occupational stress levels of the police officers. Occupational stress was measured using a set of 18 items (symptoms) associated with occupational stress symptoms in the police officers questionnaire. The subjects responded to the items by indicating the frequency with which they experience the symptoms using a 0 (Never) to 4 (Very Often) to Likert type scale. The scores of each respondent to all the 18 items were transformed into a mean score (stress index). The mean scores were then converted into occupational stress levels. Occupational stress was considered to be low when the mean score was in the range of 0.00 to 1.33, moderate when the mean was between 1.34 to 2.66 and high when the mean was between 2.67 to 4.00. The stress levels of the police officers are summarised in table 11.
The results in Table 11 show that the stress level of majority (53.6%) of the Police officers was high while the remaining 46.4% had moderate stress level. On the basis of this data, the occupational stress level of the police officers was considered high. The results of the study revealed that the stress level of majority (53.6%) of the police officers was high. The results support those of Miller (2005) who noted that those working for law enforcement agencies are always stressed because they deal with many clients and have to make many decisions under time constraints. The results are also consistent with those of Zhao (2002) who noted that police officers are always exposed to many organizational and operational stressors. Anshel (2000) pointed out that low pay, poor housing conditions, inadequate equipment and exposure to extreme or unusual external stimuli that are perceived as threatening makes police work very stressful. Policing is considered one of the most stressful occupations as it exposes staff to occupational, organizational, and personal stressors (Alexander, 1999; Paton and Violanti, 1999; Anshel, 2000). High stresses observed among police officers has been attributed to the nature of their work, the policies and practices that law enforcement organizations require their employees to follow when doing their job in the field (Ellison, 2004). The high stress that the law enforcement officers are exposed to negatively affects both their work performance, physiological wellbeing and influences work-family conflicts (Mikkelsen and Burke, 2004). There is need therefore to come up with mechanisms of reducing the stress levels of police officers such as; provision of resources and a conducive work environment if they are to perform their work well. Police officers are first responders to potentially stressful situations, their ability to successfully manage stress is critical not only to their own mental health but to the safety of society as a whole (Patterson, Chung and Swan, 2012).