Research Brief
Stress & Coping Strategies for Canadian Police Officers
Principal
Researcher(s) &
Affiliation(s)

April 12th, 2019

Introduction

Cameron Olive
Advised by:
Dr. Greg Anderson
Instructed by:
Greg Keenan,
David Smulders
Research Field
Law Enforcement/
Health & Wellbeing

Methods

Student
Involvement
N/A
Partners &
Collaboration
N/A
Funding Sources
N/A: Course-based
project.
Project Period
From: January 2019
To: April 2019

- Funded
- In Kind
-Total

Police officers are often reported to experience high levels of occupational
stress, and consequently face numerous effects on both their work and
home lives. These individuals are responsible for the safeguarding of the
general public, and accordingly, the prevention of negative effects on
police officers resulting from stress should be of societal concern. This
study sought to examine the reasons behind stress for Canadian police
officers, and identify possible stress reduction techniques to reduce the
impact of stress on long-term emotional health. Although there are many
experimental techniques proposed for public safety agencies in Canada,
there are few that have been widely accepted and implemented across
Canadian police departments.

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Using a qualitative analysis model, a variety of articles were reviewed in
order to determine the prevalence of the issue, and formulate workable
solutions. A comprehensive search and review of the Justice Institute of
British Columbia's online library database (EBSCOhost) was conducted,
and articles were filtered based on their relevancy to Canadian policing.
Search terms and additional parameters were tailored to reflect the needs
of the study. The results were then considered for specific applicability to
the research, and irrelevant material was excluded.

Results
The findings of the research indicated that a combination of
organizational and occupational stressors contribute to high stress levels
in policing. The research unanimously indicated that policing is a
mentally demanding occupation, and police officers across Canada are
regularly exposed to stressful and potentially traumatic situations. Taskorientation and adaptive-cognitive techniques were suggested as
workable methods to reduce stress whilst on-the-job, and exercise, diet,
lifestyle, and maintaining social connections were commonly cited as
important off-duty stress coping techniques.

Research Brief
Discussion
Numerous themes arose during the research. The age, ethnicity, and personal background of the officer
were found to have a direct impact on their ability to manage stress. Research consistently found that
police officers have high risk levels for general stress, PTSD, and a variety of other negative mental
health issues. As aforementioned, task-orientation and adaptive-cognitive techniques were found to be
workable in a policing context, such as breathing exercises and documenting emotion through writing.
Debriefing was found to be an effective coping mechanism for traumatic events, as was discussion of
such events with family, significant others, or co-workers.

Limitations
Time constraints on the study meant that primary research was not able to be conducted on the subject
matter. Rather, qualitative secondary research was used to formulate answers to the research question.
There is a dearth of research specifically pertaining to Canadian law enforcement; significantly more
research is conducted both in the United States and internationally. Furthermore, it was difficult to
address what improvements could be made to current policies, as many departments do not make their
intra-departmental approaches to such matters publicly available.

Conclusion & Future Research
Police officers are regularly exposed to highly stressful situations, and accordingly face increased risk
of harm to their long-term emotional health. A fundamental necessity of police-based coping strategies
is the ability to utilize them on the job, and all of the discussed skills were found to be workable in the
context of policing. Further research should be conducted to examine the prevalence and efficacy of
current stress management techniques, programs, and education in Canadian police departments.

Key References
Conn, S. M., & Butterfield, L. D. (2013). Coping with secondary traumatic stress by general duty police
officers: Practical implications. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 47(2), 272–298.
Retrieved from https://cjc-rcc.ucalgary.ca/
Gilmartin, K. M. (2002b). Emotional survival for law enforcement: A guide for officers and their
families. Tucson, AZ: E-S Press.
Tsai, L. C.-F., Nolasco, C. A. R. I., & Vaughn, M. S. (2018). Modeling job stress among police officers:
Interplay of work environment, counseling support, and family discussion with co-workers. Police
Practice & Research, 19(3), 253–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2017.1342091