LAW ENFORCEMENT STRESS PROGRAM

Chapter 9
Reducing Organizational Stress

Key Points

• As discussed in chapter 1, law enforcement agencies themselves can be a significant source of stress for officers. As a result, stress program staff and consulting mental health professionals can consider working with departments to implement organizational change.

• Law enforcement managers have many reasons for not changing their organizations. However, counselors can help motivate them to implement change by suggesting how certain innovations can improve the department's image or save it money, and by documenting the stress that specific department procedures or policies are creating for officers.

• Law enforcement mental health practitioners and organizational consultants have facilitated organizational change by

  --training command staff in constructive supervisory techniques,

  --training field training officers (FTOs) to supervise rookies in a constructive manner,

  --eliminating rotating shift work, and

  --improving the match between officers' capabilities and the needs of specific assignments.

Most police stress programs and consulting mental health practitioners focus primarily, if not exclusively, on preventing and treating stress among individual officers and their family members- -a person-centered approach. However, as discussed in chapter 1, law enforcement agencies themselves may be the single largest source of stress for many--even most--police officers. Organizational sources of stress range from rotating work shifts to inconsistent discipline to lack of opportunity for career advancement. In addition, many of these organizational factors can create stress for officers' families whose lives, for example, may be disrupted by shift work and who may worry about the officer's career advancement or even his or her job security. One expert has suggested that " an organization-centered approach--that is, identifying the problems the officers have with their work, supervisors, and pay, and making appropriate changes [in these areas]--may well have a greater influence on improving morale [than seeking to prevent or treat stress among officers]."[1] According to Gary Kaufmann, head of the Michigan State Police's Behavioral Science Section, the emphasis placed on person-centered programs by psychologists and police administrators has overshadowed the importance of addressing organizational sources of stress.[2]

Unfortunately, program staff and independent practitioners often lack the time to work with management to eliminate organizational sources of stress. Most clinicians may also feel they lack the knowledge or techniques to work with police administrators on organizational change. In addition, many law enforcement administrators may not accept what they perceive to be the intrusion of a mental health professional into the operation of their department, they may feel they do not have the time or resources to make the desired changes, or they may simply not agree that the proposed changes will reduce officer stress. Nonetheless, a number of programs contacted for this study view eliminating or reducing organizational sources of stress as part of their mission. For example, the work plan of the Health Resources Coordinator Program of the Palo Alto Police Department in California includes the objective, "To identify sources of organizational stress and consult with work units and individual managers to resolve them . . . such as the promotional process and ways to acknowledge the contributions of career officers who fail to get promoted or do not seek promotion."[3] This chapter suggests how some program staff and independent consulting clinicians promote organizational change.

Motivating Management To Implement Change

Many law enforcement managers institute organizational changes to reduce officer stress simply because they feel it is the right thing to do. However, as discussed below, there are several strategies that stress program staff can use to increase management's inclination to make changes.

Offer To Improve the Department's Image

Bad press, public criticism, and legislators' tight fiscal control are all sources of stress for police chiefs (appointed at the discretion of the mayor or selectpersons) and sheriffs (elected by voters). Stress program directors and independent mental health professionals can suggest how organizational change that reduces officer stress can simultaneously improve the department's image. It was in part the negative publicity resulting from eight officer suicides in five years, three of them in 1994, that prompted the Philadelphia Police Department to create the agency's first stress manager position, with (among other assignments) responsibility for examining department policies and procedures in order to make them less stressful.[4] A new police chief in another law enforcement agency, disturbed by the bad press caused by his department's negative paramilitary image, hired an organizational consultant and implemented several of his recommendations designed to make the department less autocratic.

Offer To Save the Department Money

Program staff and independent practitioners can document potential cost savings that may result from organizational changes by estimating the impact of the changes on the department's budget or by citing examples of actual cost savings other law enforcement agencies have experienced after having implemented similar changes. For example, the Mercedes, Texas, Police Department has 25 sworn officers and serves a city of 14,000 people. In 1986, the department was reorganized to provide an employee development program that included establishing high professional standards, a reward system to promote superior performance, walking patrol assignments, and an increase in the annual in-service training requirement. One result was that, in the 24-month period following implementation of the changes, the turnover rate among sworn personnel decreased to 7 percent, compared with an earlier rate of 38 percent. The department estimated that the reduced turnover saved it at least $53,000 (in 1988 dollars).[5]

The Mercedes, Texas, police department, with 25 sworn officers, was reorganized in 1986 to provide an employee development program. As a result, the turnover rate among sworn personnel decreased from 38 percent to 7 percent, and the department saved an estimated $53,000 from the reduced turnover.

Police administrators report that it is expensive when an officer takes early retirement or goes on disability because of the costs associated both with retirement benefits and also the recruiting, testing, training, hiring, and equipping of new officers. Furthermore, especially in small police agencies, sudden turnover can result in a serious staff shortage that requires paying other officers overtime.[6] If clinicians can document that organizational changes are likely to reduce the number of officers who leave prematurely or take sick time because of stress-related problems--and quantify the savings in dollar terms-- administrators may be more willing to institute them.

Offer To Improve the Department's Morale and Efficiency

Increasing officers' abilities to reduce and cope with stress-related difficulties and encouraging the department to reduce organizational sources of stress should naturally lead to better morale among officers, improved productivity, and therefore enhanced overall department efficiency. Even well- publicized administrator support for a stress program by itself demonstrates to officers concern about their well-being and may induce some good will, and, as noted in chapter 1, if program staff can help an officer overcome stress-related problems, the department might not only retain a valuable employee but also inspire the officer to be more motivated and more loyal to the department. While no concrete information about improved morale and efficiency was available for this report, the program practitioners listed at the end of chapter 14 may be able to put other program planners or practitioners in touch with law enforcement administrators who can attest to the organizational benefit of a stress program.

Present Strong Evidence of Organizational Stress in the Department

While police chiefs may be unwilling or unable to make many desirable changes, program staff can usually identify at least one or two sources of organizational stress which management may be willing to address (see the list provided in chapter 1). Staff can identify these sources of stress by conducting a needs assessment (see chapter 2) or by presenting administrators with data researched by other departments. For example, the Michigan State Police Department's Behavioral Science Section provided the police association with data--and credibility--that helped it to convince the department to abandon its rotating shift policy (see below).

Organizational Changes That Stress Programs Have Facilitated

Staff of four programs contacted for this study have worked extensively with management to effect important organizational changes in their police departments as a way of reducing officer stress. As described below, these changes fall principally into three categories: management supervisory style, shift work, and officer preparation for the job.

Management Train in Constructive Supervisory Styles

The Palo Alto Police Department, consisting of 100 sworn officers, has undertaken a long-term, comprehensive attempt to reduce organizationally generated stress.[9] A series of stress-related disability retirements prompted the department to commission a study in 1979 to identify sources of stress and suggest options for reducing or eliminating them. The report concluded that informal and formal organizational structures inhibited effective communication and created strained relationships between ranks, divisions, and individuals. As a result, the department hired a management consultant and a mental health clinician to design and implement an 18-month trial program to alleviate organizational stress. Through team building and meeting facilitation, the management consultant taught the department how to communicate, listen, and solve problems in an orderly, effective manner. The project, which has continued long after its trial period, is based on a 14-point program that is also the basis for the annually renewed contracts between the two consultants and the city. The points include the following:

• "identify sources of organizational stress and consult with work units and individual managers to resolve them" (e.g., the management consultant trained [and retrained because of turnover] all sergeants in how to prepare for and conduct a performance appraisal and how to give behavior- based feedback in a constructive manner);

• "monitor management decisions with regard to their stress impact, search for implementation methods which minimize the stressful impact, and advise management staff" (e.g., when the agency began to use computer-aided crime analysis to direct patrol and investigative resources toward the apprehension of career criminals, the organizational consultant designed ways for the department's sworn and civilian personnel to influence and shape the change process);

• "train FTOs [field training officers], supervisors, and managers in communication, problem solving, conflict resolution, and supervisory skills which can minimize stress for employees" (e.g., at the chief's request, each manager was surveyed on how the chief himself was creating stress for them, and recommended changes were reported along with the findings); and

• "advise individual managers on stress-producing practices and events within their units" (typically in response to a manager who requests help in solving a problem, but sometimes in response to a large number of complaints from line officers that suggest a management problem).

Michigan's Behavioral Science Section trains sergeants every year in how to manage critical incident stress among officers. Gary Kaufmann, the program director, brings to the training a trooper who has been in a critical incident (and has been a program client) to tell the sergeants, "Here's how to help a cop after a critical incident and here's how to mess one up." Kaufmann outlines what to expect of an officer who has just been in a critical incident and when to call his program for assistance with troubled officers. He and another counselor also conduct two-hour seminars with executive and command staff, for example during the all-post commander conference, where they focus on helping the managers to recognize their own work styles, understand the impact their work styles have on subordinates, and learn how to motivate their personnel to be more productive.

A number of police departments have invited Nancy Bohl, Director of the Counseling Team in San Bernardino, to train FTOs. Bohl explains to the FTOs how people react when they are criticized and presents the best approaches for criticizing someone who is performing poorly. She tests the FTOs on their supervisory style and presents them with the results so they understand how they need to improve. According to Jack West, an officer with the Upland, California, Police Department who attended the training, "The attitude of FTOs is to stress the recruit,[5] but Bohl taught us to recognize that we were stressing them too much. She also helped us learn how to recognize stress in our recruits and help them deal with it."

"The attitude of FTOs [field training officers] is to stress the recruits, but Bohl [director of San Bernardino's Counseling Team] taught us to recognize that we were stressing them too much. She also helped us to recognize stress in our recruits and help them deal with it."

-- Jack West, FTO, Upland, California, Police Department

West provided examples of how the training changed his supervisory style:

• "I became more sensitive to signs of stress among trainees and to the need to confront those symptoms." He and a trainee went to a child abuse call and found a severely injured child. Over the next several days, he noticed that the rookie devoted extra attention to other children they encountered but that on other domestic violence calls she came down very hard on the father, "obviously bent on taking some husband to jail even though there was no evidence the men had abused their children." After the FTO brought her reactions and feelings to her attention, she modified her behavior and later told him she had indeed been headed in the wrong direction-- conducting a sort of vendetta against all fathers.

• "I learned that seeing an injured child for the first time and getting extremely upset does not mean the rookie is unfit to be an officer, it just means he or she is not prepared to deal with that scenario right away." Bohl taught West and the others that an FTO's response should not be to humiliate trainees for their extreme reactions or tell them, "Don't be such a wimp." Later, when a rookie threw up after seeing a dead body, the FTO told him, "That doesn't mean you're any less of a cop; you handled the call correctly." Based on Bohl's training, he also asked, "Have you ever dealt with a dead body before? Would you like to take a break?" "Showing a little compassion," the FTO observed, "goes a long way."

• "I learned that when I was in a position of authority, I should not demean trainees." In the past, when a rookie wrote a bad citation or asked a witness a stupid question, the FTO used to mock him to the rest of the squad, "Guess what my boot did! He asked the witness. . . ." The FTO no longer does that.

Bohl also told the chiefs at the police executives' meeting that arbitrarily designating officers to become FTOs often led to personnel who did not want the assignment feeling they were being punished. As a result, most of the departments now ask officers to volunteer as FTOs. Accepting only volunteers and training them to change their supervisory styles can be extremely important because these officers play a tremendous role in acculturating new officers. For the rest of their careers, rookies may emulate their FTOs--and use the same harmful or helpful training techniques if they become training officers themselves. Indeed, any improvement in how any police trainers and managers supervise officers can reduce officer stress:

Good supervision itself is the best stress management tool. Good supervisory techniques not only increase efficiency but also help officers withstand outside pressures. In contrast, inappropriate supervision can itself be one of the worst sources of pressure.[10]

Modify Rotating Shift Work Schedule

The Michigan State Police used to rotate shifts every seven days, causing considerable stress for many troopers and their families. As a result, the troopers' association heard constant complaints from members about fatigue, eating disorders, and other problems. In an effort to encourage the department to change to a less stressful shift work schedule, the association asked the Behavioral Science Section for any available research literature that documented the harmful effects of rotating shifts on employee stress and productivity. Partly on the basis of the documentation, the department allowed troopers to determine the frequency of their shift rotation, with the option of modifying the shift rotation at least annually. Employees then select their shifts by seniority. When additional research suggested that all rotating shift work might be harmful, permanent shifts were included as an option. Each work site now makes its own choice of shift options by majority vote. Many sites have chosen fixed shifts.

"You can treat troopers one at a time, but when you `treat' executives, you're training hundreds of workers at a time."

--Captain P. David Charney, Personnel Director, Michigan State Police

The association was successful in negotiating these changes partly because of compelling evidence of the harmful effects of shift work on officer productivity, but the involvement of the Behavioral Science Section in providing this research also helped convince the department. According to association president Rick Darling, "instead of seeing me as coming to the table saying, `gimme, gimme, gimme,' the department learned that by changing the shift work arrangement it would have healthier, more productive workers--that is, the department would benefit, as well."

Match Officers with Job Requirements

Michael McMains, the psychologist for the San Antonio Police Department, worked with the department to improve the match between an officer's capabilities and the needs of a given job. According to McMains, when officers are unsuited to their work, they experience frustration, disappointment, and self- blame--that is, considerable stress. To help the department address this issue, McMains did the following:

• conducted a functional job analysis of the patrol officer position by asking a number of officers to identify the skills that were required to perform their job effectively (skills the department now looks for in selecting officers for patrol);

• conducted a functional job analysis of every job level so that the department can now base promotions not only on civil service exams but also on matching officers' skill levels with the job requirements of the positions for which they are applying; and

  "Stress management is more than counseling; careful selection of candidates for the job can reduce stress that may arise because of a mismatch between candidate and the job. Performing a person-job fit analysis before hiring and placing officers can reduce greatly the need to get mental help later on. This is preventive mental health rather than reactive mental health."

  --Michael McMains, Psychology Service, San Antonio Police Department

• revised the academic curriculum at the training academy to include more blocks on problem solving, critical thinking, and other skills related to preventing and managing stress, as well as techniques for identifying areas in which recruits have skill deficiencies so that instructors can expand training to improve the recruits' future on- the-job performance and thereby also reduce their level of stress.

Promote Change Tactfully and Opportunistically

It is important not to oversell the potential results of organizational changes, in order to avoid either sounding Pollyannaish or creating disappointment if the results are modest. In addition, program staff need to point out that some changes may lead initially to increased stress or other adverse consequences before their benefits are fully realized. For example, changing to a less paramilitary style may create stress in the short run for officers who are not used to making their own decisions on certain matters or are unaccustomed to sharing decision making with management. Finally staff should not push for change too hard or too fast but should instead be sensitive to the many reasons police managers may resist clinicians' recommendations, ranging from the perception that chiefs are always being blamed for every police officer problem to long-standing mistrust of the mental health profession.[12]

Finally, programs staff and independent practitioners should be prepared to take advantage of unexpected opportunities. Because Gary Kaufmann had a good working relationship with the Michigan troopers' association, the association president approached him personally for help in proving to the department that shift work was harmful to officers. Nancy Bohl was addressing a San Bernardino county police executive meeting when the issue of field officer trainers came up. She took the opportunity to suggest to the chiefs that they were not selecting or training the FTOs correctly, and, after some discussion and post-meeting planning, she was invited to work with FTOs in several departments to improve their supervisory techniques.

Endnotes

1. Ayers, R.M., Preventing Law Enforcement Stress: The Organization's Role, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, 1990: 9.

2. Kaufmann, G., "Law Enforcement Organizational Health Consultation," Paper presented at the Consultation with Police: Problems and Consideration Symposium, American Psychological Association 93rd Annual Convention, Los Angeles, California, August 23-27, 1985.

3. Kirschman, E., E. Scrivner, K. Ellison, and C. Marcy, "Work and Well-Being: Lessons from Law Enforcement," in Stress & Well-Being at Work: Assessments and Interventions for Occupational Mental Health, ed. J.C. Quick, L.R. Murphy, and J.J. Hurrell, Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlebaum, 1995: 178-192.

4. "Tired? Stressed? Burned out? Panel Seeks Answers for Philadelphia Police Officers," Law Enforcement News, 22 (1995): 1, 10.

5. Pape, J.L., "Employee Development Programs," FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (September 1990): 20-25.

6. Mohandie, K., F.E. Piersol, and N. Klyver, "Law Enforcement Turmoil and Transitions and the Evolving Role of the Police Psychologist," in Organizational Issues in Law Enforcement, ed. J.T. Reese and R. Solomon, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1996: 383-396.

7. Kirschman, et al., 178-192.

8. Kirschman, E.F., "Organizational Development," in Police Managerial Use of Psychology and Psychologists, ed. H.W. More and P.C. Unsinger, Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1987: 85- 106; Walima, S.E., "Organizational Health in Law Enforcement," in Psychological Services for Law Enforcement, ed. J.T. Reese and H.A. Goldstein, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1986: 205-214.

9. Ellison, K.W., and J.L. Genz, Stress and the Police Officer, Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1983: 97.

10. See, for example, Glorioso, J., "Understanding the Reluctant Police Manager," Psychological Services for Law Enforcement, ed. J.T. Reese and H.A. Goldstein, Washinton, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1986; 169-172.

11. Pape, "Employee Development Programs," 20.

12. Walima, S.E., and E.F. Kirschman, "Health Resource Coordinators: Organizational Consultation Services," The Police Chief (October 1988): 78-81.