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Effective Coping Strategies For Police Officers
Ashrafuz Zaman

Introduction

The purpose of this study determined what effective coping strategies
police officers can use to alleviate stress from their occupation and
create mental resilience through adaptive coping strategies. To
understand adaptive coping strategies an individual must understand
maladaptive coping strategies due to the latter causing avoidance
habits that reduce mental resilience. This study conducted research
on mind-fullness training where identification of the problems that
affect mental clarity are exposed so an officer can understand how to
combat them (Au, Wong, Leung & Chiu, 2018). Identifying the
problems allows officers to replace negative behaviors with positive
behaviors to improve mental clarity. Thus, this study conducted
research on the effectiveness of adaptive coping strategies and if the
overlaps between them improved mental resilience.

Background

A career in policing requires mental aptitude when dealing with
confrontation because exposure to violence and high risk situations
can be the norm when dealing with the needs of the public
(Papazoglou & Andersen, 2014). If high risk situations and exposure to
violence are commonplace, then the risk of negative coping strategies
may be used to alleviate and medicate the mind of the police officer
(Arble, Lumley, Pole, Blessman, & Arnetz, 2017). However, avoidance
of the underlying issues only perpetuates the deterioration of mental
resilience and can affect the job performance of the police officer
(Andersen, Papazoglou, Arnetz & Collins, 2015). Thus, relationships
with family, friends and coworkers may suffer due to the lack of care
the police officer is avoiding (Holton, Adam, & Chaney, 2016).
Furthermore, the department and society will suffer if the police
officer does not maintain the order of their mind when dealing with
high stress situations. The primary focus of this study determined the
effectiveness of existing coping strategies that police officers utilized
when dealing with traumatic situations.

Methods

This study used academic articles from the Justice Institute of British
Columbia (JIBC) and Google Scholar. Excluded articles included nonEnglish articles written before the year 2005 and articles that required
a payment per view. Inclusion criteria such as full text, scholarly and
academic journals were used to find articles. A broad search displayed
220 hits on JIBC library database and 19200 hits on Google Scholar.
Refined search techniques resulted in hits as low as six in JIBC’s library
database and 4500 in Google Scholar. Most articles were chosen from
the JIBC library database due to the lower number of hits compared
to Google Scholar which allowed the researcher to narrow their
search. Keywords used included: coping methods, cognitive
impairment, stress management, well-being, active coping, adaptive
coping, occupational stress, resilience training, mental preparedness,
psychological well-being, emotional preparedness, mindfulness, posttraumatic stress disorder and Canada. Keywords were paired with the
words police officers. International articles were included because
information of what is working in a police service in one country can
benefit others.

Results/Findings

Five themes were uncovered from the journal articles presented in
this study: Deterioration of health, creation of mental resilience,
education on how to combat stress through training, performance of
duties and stigmatization of seeking help. Maladaptive coping
strategies became a common trend among the themes because it
affected the mental clarity of the individual. Arble et al. (2017)
explained the use of maladaptive coping strategies reduced mental
resilience. Training on mental resilience lacked among police
departments' training curriculum (Papazoglou & Andersen, 2014).
Due to the lack of education on mental resilience, police officers
displayed increased use of maladaptive coping strategies which
decreased their job performance. In fact, Andersen, Papazoglou,
Arnetz, et al. (2015) explained reduced job performance, increased
absenteeism, increased sick days can lead to early retirement which
would reduce a police departments' efficiency. While seeking ways to
increase adaptive coping strategies are beneficial for police officers,
Papazoglou & Andersen (2018) explains stigmatization causes fear in
police officers to seek help because they believe they will be judged
by their peers.
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Bachelor of Law Enforcement Studies

Discussion

Maladaptive coping strategies affected most of the themes in this
study. On the other hand, the use of adaptive coping strategies
improved mental resiliency that allowed increased self-efficacy and
the actions needed for increased stress management (Holton et al.,
2016). Au et al. (2018) adds building mental resilience from adaptive
coping strategies allows police officers to reduce emotional stress
from their occupation which reduces their anxiety, depression, fatigue
and guilt. Maladaptive coping strategies involve the use of substances
such as drugs and alcohol which can lead to psychological distress
causing anxiety. Whereas adaptive coping strategies include
mediation, exercise and communication between family and friends
(Holton et al., 2016). Thus, police officers who utilize adaptive coping
strategies displayed a strong mental resilience when dealing with
traumatic situations that cause stress.

Conclusions or Recommendations

Allowing police officers to achieve greater mental resilience and the
reduction of maladaptive coping strategies requires the use of
adaptive coping strategies. However, programs to increase mental
resilience must be created but stigmatization of seeking help must be
addressed. Police departments must display organizational
commitment through pro social behaviors that reduce stigmatization
on seeking help (Papazoglou & Andersen, 2014).
Programs can include training on the identification of the level of
stress a traumatic situation can cause (Arble et al., 2017).
Furthermore, training on mental resilience and mind-fullness which is
described as heightened situational awareness, needs to become
commonplace in police training, thus reducing maladaptive coping
strategies (Andersen, Papazoglou, Nyman, Koskelainen, &
Gustafsberg, 2015). Replacing maladaptive coping with adaptive
coping strategies can be done by educating officers on the dangers
and process on how maladaptive coping begins. Thus, the
implementation of training should be conducted during cadet training
when the police officers begins their career (Papazoglou & Andersen,
2014).

References
Andersen, J. P., Papazoglou, K., Arnetz, B. B., & Collins, P. (2015).
Mental preparedness as a pathway to police resilience and
optimal functioning in the line of duty. International Journal
of Emergency Mental Health and Human Resilience, 17(3),
624-627. doi:10.4172/1522-4821.1000243
Andersen, J. P., Papazoglou, K., Nyman, M., Koskelainen, M., &
Gustafsberg, H. (2015). Fostering resilience among the
police. Journal of Law Enforcement, 5(1), 1–13. Retrieved from
https://nicic.gov/series/journal-law-enforcement
Arble, E., Lumley, M. A., Pole, N., Blessman, J., & Arnetz, B. B. (2017).
Refinement and preliminary testing of an imagery-based program
to improve coping and performance and prevent trauma among
urban police officers. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology,
32(1), 1–10. Retrieved from https://www.springer.com/
journal/11896
Au, W. T., Wong, Y. Y., Leung, K. M., & Chiu, S. M. (2018). Effectiveness
of emotional fitness training in police. Journal of Police and
Criminal Psychology. Retrieved from https://www.springer.com/
journal/11896
Holton, M. K., Adam, B. E., & Chaney, D. J. (2016). Employee stress
management: An examination of adaptive and maladaptive coping
strategies on employee health. Work, 53(2), 299–305. Retrieved
from https://www.iospress.nl/journal/work/
Papazoglou, K., & Andersen, J. P. (2014). A guide to utilizing police
training as a tool to promote resilience and improve health
outcomes among police officers. Traumatology: An International
Journal, 20(2), 103–111. Retrieved from https://
journals.sagepub.com/home/tmt

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Justice Institute of British Columbia

March 2020