My training officer’s locker door was opened, a bottle of whisky was produced, and a glass poured. After drinking I was told not to talk to friends or family about the deaths of two small children that I had just witnessed. I was told this was the job, and I had to deal with it, like everyone else. It was 1997 and I had been a police officer for a few months.
I have followed this instruction for the 19 years since. I only recently told my wife that I had been hospitalised for concussion after being struck on the head with a baseball bat by an armed robber I was tackling. This was the culture when I was trained and introduced to policing. At that time stress leave was virtually nonexistent and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) unheard of. Suicide was not discussed.
In the last five years, sick days taken for stress have increased by 50%, with absences attributed by some to cuts in the numbers of officers still dealing with the same levels of crime. I would caution that the people making that claim have agendas that do not necessarily conform to the basic requirements of the bobby on the beat.
This has then been linked to an increase in PTSD, which inexorably is linked to an increase in suicide. Are these increases due to poor management, reducing budgets, increased workload and cuts in overtime pay? Alternatively, are they due to increased support and a change in philosophy, where officers are actively encouraged to report and seek help?
Certainly, a decrease in officers while the workload remains the same is stressful, and although crime is falling generally across the UK, police officers are responding to a similar number of incidents involving minor disorder and disputes. Along with this, a lack of opportunity to advance due to falling recruitment and a loss of most basic privileges, including double time pay on holidays, is bound to increase stress at work and home.
There is another possibility, which is less palatable. Some may be abusing the possibility of six months’ paid leave for stress. I remember one officer in particular. Subject to an internal investigation, on the advice of the Police Federation apparently, the officer was told that a “six-month holiday” would be personally beneficial. Out of sight and out of mind, public pressure would wane and the investigation into any wrongdoing would falter. Are there just more of this type of people in the police service?
Recruiting standards have certainly changed. The requirements at entry level are now lower than they have ever been, despite the assertions of the Association of Chief Police Officers (now the National Police Chiefs’ Council) and the Home Office. They have twisted the system to make entry easier – for example, the removal of certain aspects of testing that were routinely failed by poor candidates. The marks required in other areas were not reduced, allowing authorities to claim that police recruitment was not being dumbed down.
Returning to a culture where police officers are told to bury their issues is not healthy for anyone; there is no shame in asking for help. Yet a culture where we wring our hands and cry every time something bad happens is equally unhealthy. This career is not for everyone, some simply may not be mentally strong enough. I can offer little solace for those who are overwrought with emotion when seeing a dead body for the first time; in this job, what did you expect?
An increase in officers reporting genuinely stressful incidents, examined closely and kept in context, and as a result taking some time off is not necessarily a bad thing; otherwise, we revert to whisky and locker rooms to resolve our issues. I know which is best.
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Ben