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.