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Exploring the implications of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder on Police
Jordan Grebenc

Introduction

To date, extensive research demonstrates a correlation exists between a
critical incident by police officers and post-traumatic stress disorder. This is a
significant issue as police officers are inherently exposed to critical incidents
throughout their work duties, placing them at an increased risk of developing
post-traumatic stress disorder. According to Fox et al., (2012), approximately
24% of the police officers have some degree of post-traumatic stress disorder
in their United States survey.

Background

Critical incident stress can develop into various psychological issues such as
post-traumatic stress disorder (Martin, Marchand, Boyer, & Martin, 2009).
The Canadian Mental Health association defines post-traumatic stress
disorder as “a mental illness. It often involves exposure to trauma from single
events that involve death or the threat of injury” (Canadian Mental Health
Association, 2016).
Hartley (2013) found that critical incident exposure could cause poor sleep
quality, alcohol abuse and mental health problems (Hartley et al., 2013).
These conditions require some varying degree of medical services or work
related costs. The subject of post-traumatic stress disorder is very important
to public safety because police officers are those who are tasked with
keeping the public safe.

Methods

Secondary research was conducted through multiple sources, no primary
data was collected for this project.
Firstly, the Search Me! Database at the Justice Institute of British Columbia.
This search produced 1,189 academic articles. The search used the subject
terms of police, police stress, post-traumatic and stress disorder. Results
were further narrowed through the use of the following criteria: scholarly
(peer reviewed), full text, date (2006-2017), and by using a source type of
academic journals.
A secondary search of google was conducted in order to gain articles that
were not indexed in the SearchMe! Database to supplement the academic
finsings. A handful of articles were chosen using this method. The google
search engine also provided non scholarly information such as websites.
Information from websites was used to supplement the information from
academic journals to gain a more complete view of the topic area.
After this process only 8 articles remained. The chosen articles underwent a
thematic analysis in order to identify common themes and produce a
literature review.

Results/Findings

Three themes were consistent throughout the literature after a thematic
analysis was completed on the remaining academic articles.
The literature showed that exposure to critical or traumatic incidents can
lead to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder. Post-traumatic
stress disorder can have an impact on an individual’s health and work
performance.
There are various definitions of post traumatic stress disorder throughout
the literature but they all include the common element of exposure to a
critical incident or trauma.

Figure 1
Figure 2

Discussion

Due to the link between exposure to critical incidents and the development
of post-traumatic stress disorder many police departments have responded
with the creation of some form of critical incident stress management team.
The role of such a team is to provide immediate support from other officers
following their involvement in a critical incident. Programs like this are
effective because they are generally run by fellow officers. Mental health
professionals are brought in later to assess any possible symptoms of mental
health issues as well as to address any physical symptoms that an officer may
display.
There are a number of ways for a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder
to be made but the process will generally include a physical examination and
a psychological evaluation used in conjunction with the diagnostic and
statistical manual of mental disorders.
The current methods of screening for PTSD have inherent limitations (Gates
et al., 2012). Self-reporting scales may be susceptible to bias from the
individual as well as researchers (Gates et al., 2012). There are also concerns
of positive and negative screening results that may cause over or under
reporting of symptoms (Gates et al., 2012). Furthermore, the reliance of a
single measure or assessment tool can lead to a diagnosis that is inaccurate
(Gates et al., 2012).
A problem when collecting the data that occurred was that a significant
portion of articled were relating PTSD were amongst first responders rather
than specifically police. This caused several articles to not be selected.
Although, the chosen articles did have the same themes as the excluded
articles. Therefore, minimal data was excluded from the research.

Conclusions or Recommendations

Educating officers on the signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress
disorder is a strong step forward in limiting the impact that it can have on the
individual’s personal and professional life. Catching the symptoms early can
also have significant cost savings for the department they work for and the
healthcare system. This is the most important recommendation.
Early intervention is essential to prevent the disorder form progressing and
becoming increasingly intrusive in the officer’s life (Gates et Al., 2012). If a
problem becomes intrusive it can have a negative impact on other aspects of
their life and lead to other issues such as sleeping disorders, which will
impact their job performance (Fox et al., 2012). Furthermore, Hartley (2012)
found that critical incident exposure could also lead to alcohol abuse. The
impact of alcohol abuse is another potential cost in the long run to the
individual and their health.
Access to mental health services should be increased. Fox (2012) found that
only 47% of officers surveyed had used mental health services for the fear
that it could negatively impact their career. In order to increase the access to
these services departments must eliminate the stigma, or perceived stigma,
of their members regarding the mental health services.
A thematic analysis was conducted on all the and they revealed three
general trends. The statistical differences across the studies are minute and
thus, leads to the conclusion that post-traumatic stress disorder is a
significant issue among police officers and can occur after critical incident
exposure among officers. Many independent studies lead to this same
conclusion. This form of triangulation strengthens the validity of their
findings.

References
Fox, J., Desai, M., Britten, K., Lucas, G., Luneau, R., & Rosenthal, M. S. (2012). Mental-health conditions, barriers to
care, and productivity loss among officers in an urban police department. Connecticut Medicine, 76(9), 525.
Retrieved from https://csms.org/publications/connecticut-medicine/
Gates, M., Holowka, D., Vasterling, J., Keane, T., Marx, B., & Rosen, R. (2012). Posttraumatic stress disorder in
veterans and military personnel: Epidemiology, screening, and case recognition. Psychological Services, 9(4), 361382. doi:10.1037/a0027649
Hartley, T., Violanti, J., Sarkisian, K., Andrew, M., & Burchfiel, C. (2013). PTSD symptoms among police officers:
Associations with frequency, recency, and types of traumatic events. International Journal of Emergency Mental
Health, 15(4), 241. Retrieved from https://www.omicsonline.com/open-access/ArchiveIJEMHHR/currentissueinternational-journal-of-emergency-mental-health-and-human-resilience.php
Figure 1
Retrieved from
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/181973641169042214/
Figure 2
Retrieved from
https://www.google.ca/search?q=ptsd+police&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isc
h&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju7rjdzujSAhUL_WMKHQZXBsAQ_AUIBigB&biw=1920
&bih=974#imgrc=nZwxqdPMfIECeM:

Bachelor of Law Enforcement Studies

Martin, Marchand, Boyer, & Martin, (2009). Predictors of the development of posttraumatic stress disorder among
police officers. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 10(4), 451-468. doi:10.1080/15299730903143626
Introductory Overview. The impact of stress on officers and the OPP response

Justice Institute of British Columbia