In recent years, and particularly in the last several months, a troubling focus in our society has been on problematic and frequently violent interactions between law enforcement and the communities they serve, particularly African American communities. There have been fatal shootings of citizens under questionable circumstances, protests, and calls for defunding police departments. Most people would agree that the work of law enforcement is stressful. They have shifting work schedules, disturbing crime scenes, emotional and upset victims and community members, among other challenges. Officers lose sleep and frequently suffer from depression, anxiety, and the physical manifestations of stress. They are required to deal with difficult emotional states on a daily basis. They have one of the highest rates of suicide on the job of any profession. Is it any wonder that the life expectancy for retired police is only 10 years on average? Yet, the more that they are stressed, the more likely they are to respond aggressively or with intimidation to volatile situations, putting themselves and others in danger.
Is there any help for this situation? For me, the answer to the question posed in the title of this post is a resounding yes. Stress reduction strategies such as mindfulness, progressive muscle relaxation, and yoga are being used to reduce the harmful effects of stress. In some recent articles, there has been study of the application of stress reduction strategies for police officers. For example, there have been applications of mindfulness with police officers in El Cerrito, California. A team of a police officer and a facilitator from the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center conducted mindfulness practices, such as mindful breathing and body scanning (also components of progressive muscle relaxation training and yoga). The presentation of scientific findings was critical to acceptance by law enforcement officers. Mindfulness has a strong scientific basis. There are numerous studies showing that it can decrease stress, pain, anxiety, and depression in many groups. For a fuller discussion of stress reduction strategies, please see our book (I Can’t Take It Anymore: How to Manage Stress So It Doesn’t Manage You; Paul G. Longobardi, Ph.D., and Janice B. Longobardi, R.N., B.S.N., P.H.N.), available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1542458056. For additional information about the authors, book, and stress management, please visit our website at www.manageyourhealthandstress.com.
The application of mindfulness on the job has been shown to help employees reduce stress, improve communication, increase job safety, and improve job performance. There have been studies in which police officers who went through mindfulness training in their first year of training experienced less depression. Other studies with mindfulness and officers have shown reduced perceived stress, burnout, anger, sleep disturbance, and improved physical and emotional health. By regulating officers' reactions to stress, mindfulness assists police in increasing the consideration of options even when under a degree of threat and without responding with automatic behaviors to include intimidation or violence. Through mindfulness, as we become more aware of our emotional responses to situations, we can consider more possible options as to how to respond. For police officers, this can include increased listening, caring, respect, and restraint. For many in law enforcement, this is in stark contrast to the dominant culture of restraining, dampening, or ignoring emotions. One of my professors used to say that "there's no such thing as unexpressed resentment". What he meant was that we can not ignore our emotional states. They will find a way to expression whether for good or to our detriment. Mindfulness training can help police officers, as well as the rest of us, to be more self-aware, lessening our human tendency to restrict choices under stress.
Such approaches are not a panacea for curing all the problems for American police officers. Many other issues such as knowing the community they serve, reducing racial/cultural stereotypes and biases, and learning strategies to de-escalate situations, among others, are critical. However, stress reduction strategies can assist in helping improve the well being of our communities as well as officers, as a result of greater openness to communication between police and the community groups they serve.
As I have written on many occasions, stress is a choice. While acknowledging there are challenging situations, your ability to be more aware of your thoughts, emotions, and physical manifestations can help you make better choices while under stress. That would be a good thing for all of us, community members and law enforcement.
Good luck on your journey.
Dr. Paul Longobardi
For more information on these and related topics, please see my website at www.successandmindset.com