Examining Mental Health Among Law Enforcement

Critical Incident Peer Support: Examining Mental Health among Law Enforcement
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Critical Incident Peer Support: Examining Mental Health among Law Enforcement
Law enforcement officers and personnel across the criminal justice system regularly encounter high-risk, high-stress situations. Crisis intervention is more than the immediate response to those situations; the mental health of the law enforcement officers during the aftermath and the long-term effects are more of a residual afterthought. A commonly understated step in the crisis intervention process is the critical incident peer support that is supposed to come after. After every police-involved shooting or major crisis, an assessment is conducted to determine if the officer is physically and mentally fit to return to work. Due to the nature of the profession, there is a stigma when it comes to mental health in law enforcement, "do not say anything that will get your badge and weapon taken away.” This mentality builds and promotes issues such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD to go without the proper treatment, which only further exacerbates them until it surmounts a critical event happening within criminal justice departments, the death of a police officer by suicide. In recent years, studies have explored that to try and fill in the knowledge gaps as it pertains to the effects that traumatic stress, secondary traumatic stress, and social pressure have on their personal and professional lives. Cerel et al. (2019) found that out of 813 police officer participants, 95% of the police officers suffered from nightmares or other trauma from a suicide call. This paper intends to provide further insight into the police officers' experiences and perspectives of suicide and suicidal ideation calls they respond to throughout their careers. There is an underlying need for specific interventions, such as critical incident peer support among law enforcement, which might improve the mental health and law enforcement officer responses to high-risk/high-stress calls in the long term.
Theoretical Approaches
This study draws on the strain theory of suicide and the organizational justice theory. The strain theory of suicide theory states that severe psychological strains afflict an individual contemplating suicide. The theory proposes four sources of strain leading to suicide: (1) Value strain from opposing values, (2) aspiration strain from the incongruity between reality and aspiration, (3) deprivation strain from relative deprivation like poverty, and (4) coping strain from deficit coping skills during a crisis (Zhang & Lester, 2008). Strains subject people to unbearable pressures, making them opt for suicide and suicide ideations. Such pressures manifest in various ways, including anger, frustration, bitterness, and physical and psychological pain.
In law enforcement, the strains are akin to regular stress experienced by police officers. The persistence of these strains leads to frustrations and anger, forcing the victims to devise a way of eliminating or reducing them (Bishopp, 2014). The inability to resolve the strains leaves individuals with suicide or suicidal ideation as a last resort. This theory is helpful in this study because it helps understand why police officers are vulnerable to suicide and suicide ideations and the circumstances under which ideation is actualized. Simply, suicide ideation emerges from strains in one’s life. Its actualization is a due process whereby a person encounters severe psychological strains and cannot reduce or stop them. Ultimately, that person makes suicide a preferred option for addressing the strains.
The organizational justice theory suggests that employees are more vulnerable to psychological problems when they feel dissatisfied due to unfair treatment by their administrations (Burke, 2019). Law enforcement officers are often obligated to make complex decisions that their departments later scrutinize. Upon scrutiny, they expect the departments to treat them fairly. When exposed to trauma, law enforcement officers expect their agencies to give the appropriate and equitable care. However, the police culture, based on hyper-masculine positioning that discourages emotional expression (Craddock & Telesco, 2022), limits the agencies' ability to implement mental health programs.
The weak intervention programs in law enforcement contribute to the rising mental health cases, with some quitting their job. Most police officers have witnessed unfairness in their agency, claiming that departments neither pay attention to their welfare nor empathize with them when subjected to trauma (Burke, 2019). Similarly, low pay or wage gap in the police force raises inequality concerns. Despite being one of the world's most stressful and hazardous occupations, police officers feel underpaid and undervalued while being disrespected by the citizens they serve. This scenario explains why corruption is rampant in the police force.
Mental Health and Suicide Predisposition among Law Enforcement
Mental health problems contribute significantly to suicide and suicide ideation. In some countries, law enforcement officers undergo personality tests and personal interviews to assess their mental capability (Guerrero-Barona et al., 2021). Theoretically, these examinations should clear the officer from any adverse psychological condition. A police officer with an unstable mental state is deemed dangerous to the public and the entire force. They are likely to make an unsound judgment that may lead to the death of innocent people. However, the mental assessment does not indicate that a police officer may not develop psychological problems later for various reasons. In this context, studies by Krishnan et al. (2022) confirmed that law enforcement is a profession that highly exposes officers to mental health problems. It is a profession in which stigma concerns and fear of a negative impact on a person's career discourage police officers from seeking psychological help.
Depression is a common mental health problem police officers are likely to experience. This condition will likely subject the victims to alcohol abuse as a coping mechanism. It is a deeply rooted cultural practice among law enforcement officers. In a study involving 193 officers with suicide ideation, researchers found that depression was the most significant suicide predictor (Guerrero-Barona et al., 2021). Depression is a serious psychological condition that affects one's emotional state and is associated with increased mortality. Suicide ideation is one of the primary symptoms of depression, according to DSM-5. Studies show that the prevalence of depression and suicide among police officers is higher than that of the general public. Guerrero-Barona et al. (2021) noted that the prevalence of an episode of depression among police officers in the US is about 12%, whereas the general public has a prevalence of around 10.4%.
The high prevalence of depression among law enforcement officers is attributed to factors such as critical incident trauma (Carpenter, 2021). As first responders, police officers are always the first people on a crime scene. They respond to incidents that make them vulnerable to trauma. These incidents include murder, accidents, suicides, homicides, and natural calamities (Bishopp, 2014). The culmination of these incidents adversely affects a police officer, both physically and emotionally. Untreated, these effects can lead to PTSD and depressive disorders (Carpenter, 2021). The police subculture can discourage the officer from seeking help, leading to self-medication which in policing involves alcohol and drug use.
Many police officers do not seek help because they fear being perceived as weak or losing their job. If the mental assessment reveals the officer's severe mental health condition, the individual may be immediately discharged from duty to prevent further harm. As cited by Carpenter (2021), Fleischmann et al. (2018) conducted a study of 575 law enforcement officers in Georgia to examine the officers’ views regarding traumatic events. Findings indicated that 51.1% of the participants knew a police officer that was changed after experiencing trauma at work (Carpenter, 2021). Additionally, 46% reported knowing a law enforcement officer that had committed suicide, 10.5% reported having suicidal ideations, and 74.5% reported having experienced trauma on the job (Carpenter, 2021). The stress level was high among police officers with a solid Christian faith. These officers tend to uphold orthodox teachings when handling critical incidents. The increased stress levels among this population are caused by their empathy for others.
Relationship Problems, common among police officers, also result in suicidal thoughts and ideation. Reports indicate that many police officers facing relationship challenges have ended up taking their own life and the life of their partners (Bishopp, 2014). The divorce rate is also higher in police officers than in the general population. A study about homicide-suicide in police families revealed that nearly 50% of police families had encountered intimate partner violence (IPV) (Carpenter, 2021). The general population indicates that 28.5% of men and 35.6% of women have experienced IPV (Carpenter, 2021). Researchers inferred that police officers are vulnerable to work stress, which commonly permeates into their relationships. Of 479 spouses surveyed, 60% reported verbal or emotional abuse (Carpenter, 2021). Another study surveyed 860 law enforcement officers to investigate child maltreatment and family violence among the participants (Carpenter, 2021). In this research, 152 officers ...