Alcoholism Among Law Enforcement Personnel

8/3/2019 Alcoholism Among Law Enforcement Personnel

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Alcoholism Among Law Enforcement

Personnel: Its Unique Challenges

by admin on 22. Jul, 2010 in Substance Abuse, Therapeutic

Alcohol abuse among police officers is a serious and widespread problem, with some studiesestimating that it afflicts one-quarter of all police officers in the U.S. Research has revealed astrong connection between occupational stress and alcohol and drug abuse, but also a strongsub-cultural more among police officers that encourages drinking both for social and stress-reduction purposes. Alcohol consumption among police officers is also correlated with officersuicides and domestic violence, and many departments are beginning to recognize the liabilityin allowing this problem to go untreated. Mental health professionals have an opportunity tointroduce prevention and intervention services to law enforcement agencies, but they mustfirst surmount the wall of suspicion and cynicism that isolates the police sub-culture from therest of society. This article explores the nature of the problem of alcohol abuse among police,and also describes several initiatives aimed at reaching the men and women who protect and

serve.

Alcoholism Among Law Enforcement Personnel: Its Unique Challenges

Problem drinking in the U.S. costs employers a staggering $10.7 to $2.7 billion per year inaccumulated sick pay, lost productivity, accidents, and the consequences of bad workplacedecisions. Some 60% of job absenteeism is attributable to alcoholic and other troubledemployees, and these employees miss work 16 times more frequently than do their non-troubled colleagues. Moreover, nearly 90% of all industrial accidents are attributed to workerswith either substance abuse or mental health issues. Across occupational lines, thoseemployed in law enforcement are especially susceptible, and some studies have estimated thatone-quarter of all police officers in the U.S. have serious alcohol problems (Moriarty & Field,1990). Other health risks associated with police stress include weight gain, insomnia, gastricconditions, and heart disease (Lumb and Breazeale, 2002). A recent Australian studysuggested the alcohol abuse rate is as high as 33% for police officers in that nation (Davey,Obst, and Sheehan, 2001). Several studies have corroborated the link between high stress anddrinking (and their association with police suicides and domestic violence), and police work isranked among the highest occupations for work-related stress (Davey, et. al.).

Paradoxically, despite the significantly high risk for alcoholism and other related problems,law enforcement remains one of the most difficult groups to reach with intervention and

prevention services, due largely to the insular, clannish nature of police culture (Donovan,1994). The purpose of this paper is explore the factors that may contribute to this situation and

discuss some of ways mental health professionals might effectively reach out to the men andwomen who protect and serve.

Nature of the Problem

The job of a law enforcer in many respects occupies a unique role in a society. As Beutler,Nussbaum, and Meredith (1988) point out,


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Officers must be willing to expose themselves to danger on a daily basis and to confront life-threatening circumstances. They must be willing, on one hand, to comply with a superiorsdemands even when disagreeable and, on the other, to withstand the angry efforts of offendersto control them. The need to balance contradictory roles while maintaining a high degree ofinterpersonal sensitivity may adversely affect an individual over time if he or she does nothave unusual skills (p. 503).

The Role of Stress

As previously noted, several studies have established a significant correlation betweenoccupational stress and increased alcohol use by law enforcement personnel (Moriarty andField, 1990; Violanti, 1985; Davey, et.al., 2001; Kohan and OConnor, 2002). North CarolinaWesleyan College (n.d.) lists several sources of stress that are unique to police work andwhich may influence officers to consume alcohol as a means of coping. Stressors internal tothe police organization include: Poor supervision (too lenient or too tough); absence ofupward mobility; absence of an extrinsic reward system; offensive (annoying or silly) policiesand procedures; excessive paperwork; and poor equipment.External stressors include:Absence of career development and lateral entry; jurisdictional turf battles among different

law enforcement agencies; an ineffective criminal justice system; biased news reporting;negative minority attitudes towards police; derogatory remarks by the public; politicalinterference; and lack of community resources. Stressors connected with police workinclude:Role conflict and strain; rotating shifts; fear and danger; relinquishing cases to the detective

bureau; victim pain and anguish; and employee review boards (or civilian complaint reviewboards as they are called in New York City). Additional stressors include greater media andpublic scrutiny of police work and the ever-increasing sophistication and weaponry of manycriminals. Women and minority police officers also face their own, unique stressors: forwomen, sexual harassment, public stereotypes, and non-acceptance by male peers; and forminorities, racial prejudice from white colleagues along with alienation from their owncommunities, which often fear and dislike the police (North Carolina Wesleyan College, n.d.).

Police, much like soldiers in combat, often experience the effects of job-related stress in adelayed manner similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). But unlike other

professionals and executives whose occupational stressors remain fairly constant, lawenforcement personnel experience what is known as burst stress: long periods of calm and

boredom suddenly interrupted by periods of high activity (North Carolina Wesleyan College,n.d.). Terry (1985) calls this police stress syndrome. As many turn to drinking as a means to

cope with the challenges of their work, the rates of police suicides and domestic violence areincreasing nationwide, with the majority of these cases being alcohol related (Donovan,

1994). In Chicago, for example, alcohol was involved in all police suicides between 1977 and1979 (Wagner and Brzeczek, as reported by Moriarty and Fields, 1990).

How Stress Affects Police Officers

Lumb and Breazeale (2002) assert that occupational stress, if untreated, can lead to negativechanges in police officers, specifically in their self-schemas and in how they perceive thecommunities in which they serve. This, in turn, puts them at risk for becoming cynical,

burning out, turning apathetic, divorcing, abusing alcohol and drugs, and committing suicide.Moriarty and Fields (1990) expand on this point:


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The time early in ones career is particularly stressful since it requires adjustment to the moresof an occupational group that may be quite different from that which is otherwise familiar tothe individual. For police officers, this adjustment is particularly difficult since the transitionfrom civilian life to police work involves exposure to stressors that heretofore have notrevealed themselves to the recruit. For rookie officers, in particular, there is evidence tosuggest that stress from their work causes physiological changes even before the officer

himself or herself recognizes that stress is problematic to ones health (p. 158).

The overreaching impact of stress is corroborated by Beutlers (1988, as reported by Police-

Stress, n.d.) longitudinal, four year study of 25 rookie University of Arizona police officers,which utilized several self-reporting tools including the MacAndrews Alcoholism Scale. Thestudy found that significant changes occurred in the psychological makeup of the officersafter just a few years on the job, and concluded that police officers may show signs of stressearly in their careers and that with greater time in service, somatic signs of stress and risk ofsubstance abuse increase (Discussion section, para. 2). To wit, respondents scores on theMacAndrews Scale increased from 0% for alcohol problems in the first year to 27% by theend of the second year, and to 36% by the fourth year of the study.

Cook (2003), in her anthropological essay written from the perspective of a rookie policeofficers wife, notes that stress begins in the police academy, where recruits receive their firsttaste of the harsh realities of modern police work. Recruits are told stories about other cops

being sued, becoming alcoholics, druggies, wife beaters, or even worse, committing suicide,so their morale is low even as they enter the professionEventually the recruits look at the

job as an eventual spiral of pessimism, negativity, and increasing liability (Cook, TheNocebo Effect and Stress section, para. 1).

Impact of Police Culture

Several researchers have linked negative coping mechanisms with alcoholism and drug abusein law enforcement personnel (Shanahan, 1992, Elliott and Shanahan, 1994, Violenti, 1993,and Davey, et. al., 2001). Pugh (1985, as cited in Lumb and Breazeale, 2002) suggests thatthese negative coping skills may be embedded in character traits (specifically, tough-mindedness and aggressiveness) typically associated with the beat cop, and which manydepartments may still look for in recruits despite a rapidly changing social environment. Pughsuggests that these character traits are constant predictors of superior police performance ina traditional, reactive law enforcement setting (p. 95). However, the current trend in lawenforcement is away from the reactive practices of patrol, rapid response, and investigationand toward a more proactive, community-oriented approach. The new skills required for thisnew approach include problem solving, flexibility, good interpersonal and communicationsabilities, and a demeanor that is authoritative rather than authoritarian (Lumb and Breazeale,

p. 96).

Thus, officers who cling to the old school mindset may suffer future shock in a rapidlyevolving social climate. Even in the midst of social change, many police departments todaycontinue to embrace many of the traditions of a bygone era, including the acceptance ofdrinking (Davey, et.al., 2001). Factors such as the availability of alcohol both inside andoutside of work, lack of departmental policies on drinking (or if they do exist, laxenforcement), lack of support mechanisms to help members deal with stress, andnot by farthe leastpeer pressure, all contribute to the problem of drinking among police officers(Davey, et.al., 2001). Banduras Social Learning Theory (as cited in DiClemente, 2003)


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would view drinking as asocial cue of the cultural group or subgroup with which one isinvolved. In the case of police work, drinking has been a time-honored way of taking theedge off the stresses of the job since the first New York City patrolmen set out on theirnightly rounds in the 1840s. To understand why this is so one must have a basic knowledge ofthe history of policing in the United States.

Historical Perspective

From the origins of most big city police forces in 1850s up until the early 20 th Century whenautomobiles emerged as integral law enforcement tools, the lot of the ordinary patrolman wasto walk a solitary beat, day and night, outside and under all weather conditions. Theconventional wisdom of the time was that a nip of liquor would help to insulate ones bodyfrom the bitter cold of winter. Thus, while official department policy may have prohibiteddrinking while on duty, it was tacitly acceptable for a policeman on foot patrol on cold nightsto either carry a personal flask of alcohol or stop in at the bar on his beat for a quick drink. Asecond point to consider is that Irish-Americans, up until just a few generations ago,dominated the ranks of many big city departments, notably New York City and Chicago, andfor them drinking was a big part of their cultural heritage. Furthermore, the tight-knit bond

between officers (including strong peer pressure to conform), which still exists today, wasforged in an era when police officers would work a 12-hour shift and then be held over at thestationhouse as reserves for an additional 12 hours (Lardner and Repetto, 2000). Liquor wastypically kept at the stationhouse, and traditional occasions for celebration included: theconclusion of successful operations; promotions, transfers, and retirements; debriefings andworkshops; and traditional holidays such as Christmas, New Years and of course St.Patricks Day (Davey, et.al., 2001).

Modern Police Culture and Drinking

Modern police culture remains insular and tight-knit, and the extent to which drinking hasbecome ingrained in it varies from station to station, department to department. Yetempirically, police officers face heavy pressure to drink, to where non-drinking officers areoften viewed as suspicious or anti-social by their colleagues. Davey, et.al. (2001), in a recentsurvey of police officers found that nearly 25% reported drinking in order to be part of theteam while 25% reported that they were negatively affected by a co-workers drinking (p.147).

Whereas alcohol abuse, substance abuse, other associated health-related problems can createliability for a police department and compromise its effectiveness, police officials typically donothing to prevent or mitigate the problems but instead react punitively once a troubledofficers behaviors get out of hand (Lumb and Breazeale, 2002). There are opportunities for

prevention specialists and mental health professionals to partner with police agencies to

reduce the incidences of alcohol abuse among law enforcement personnel, providing they arepresented in such a way as to overcome officers barriers of cynicism and suspicion.

Prevention and Intervention

Employee assistance programs (EAPs) have grown in popularity within the corporatecommunity over the past 20 years, as employers seek ways to mitigate the costs of lost

productivity, sick time, and accidents that are associated with troubled employees. Moriartyand Field (1990) advocate the use of EAPs within police organizations to interdict officers


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alcohol abuse and other issues before they escalate. Noting the fact that police culture is oftensuspicious of outsiders, cynical, and resistant to change, the researchers argue that

participation in EAPs should be mandatory for all officers, from the time they begin their lawenforcement careers. Rookie officers, upon entering the field portion of their training (whichtypically begins immediately after police academy graduation), would be required to makecontact with an EAP intervention specialist for the purpose of a lifestyle assessment designed

to reveal potential risk factors. This is vital as the rookies begin to experience, hands-on, areality that may well be a paradigm shift from the reality they knew as civilians. Moriarty andFields (1990) explain the rationale:

The new recruit develops an anticipatory set of beliefs about the nature of police work. Thesebeliefs, however, are not verified by the reality of his or her experience. Soon afteremployment, another dimension reveals itself to the officer. This creates a need to resolveconflicts between expectations and the reality of the job. How the officer puts this togetherinto a compatible set of beliefs is critical to his or her emotional well being for at least tworeasons. First, it represents the prototype for coping with job related stresses that are yet tocome in ones career. Secondly, this is the time that some officers gravitate to thosecolleagues who have not adjusted well to their profession, the men and women whose

cynicism casts a negative shadow on the entire departmentWithout some exposure on aregular basis to productive and professional styles of adjustment, the rookie officer is oftenleft to commiserate with those colleagues who are too sympathetic to his or her plight and aremore than willing to nurture the negative perceptions that the administration, the public, or theworld is at fault (p. 157).

Lifestyle assessment looks at aspects of an individuals lifestyle such as: (a) Personal habits,which include diet, rest, exercise, and personal coping skills; (b) communication styles, bothat the personal and professional level; and (c) the individuals general state of physical andmental fitness. Rookies who score high for risk factorse.g., poor coping skills, inflexibility,low self-esteem, etc.would then work with the specialist to develop more effective copingskills aimed at preventing emotional crises and reducing reliance on alcohol as a requisitemeans of managing stress or gaining acceptance.

Peer Counseling

Whereas EAPs typically employ mental health clinicians and not law enforcementprofessionals to work with officers, the New York City Police Department has employed astrategy of using its own to help its own. The Police Organization Providing Peer Assistance(POPPA) program, launched in 1995, is staffed by trained intervention volunteers recruiteddirectly from the ranks of the Citys 38,000-member police force (Police-Stress, n.d.). POPPAoperates a 24-hour, confidential helpline for officers. The NYPD reports that the helplinereceives between 900 1200 calls per year, and about 75% of those result in a face-to-face

offsite meeting between the caller and a peer counselor. The counselors lend a sympatheticear and provide referrals to outside mental health providers as necessary, but they do notprovide psychotherapy. The programs rationale is that it takes a cop to know a cop, so atroubled officer is more likely to open up to someone who has himself or herself experienced

police stress. The POPPA program has achieved modest success in its first 10 years, with thepercentage of callers accepting mental health referrals rising from 30% in 1995 to 45% in2005 (Police-Stress). There are now a number of programs throughout the U.S. that aremodeled on the POPPA initiative.


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Coaching

Recognizing that the changing nature of police work is a major source of stress for many law

enforcement officers, Lumb and Breazeale (2002) have proposed a pilot program in whichselect police department employees would be trained to coach other employees in how to

cope with change and better manage occupational stress. The goal of the program is

prevention: to provide officers with effective coping strategies and resources before stress canlead to problem behaviors and substance abuse. Although not implemented at the time theirarticle was published, the authors presented the concept to a focus group of law enforcement

administrators from various agencies in North and South Carolina, with the majority ofparticipants responding favorably.

Faith-Based Initiatives

St. Michaels House in Chicago, IL, which opened in 1997 and serves all of Chicagos13,000-member police force, is described as the nations only comprehensive treatment

program designed solely for law enforcement officers (Program for Police, p. 4). While notaligned with one particular religious sect, the program is the result of a partnership between

the departments chaplaincy and counseling services and Rush Behavioral Health (a divisionof Rush Presbyterian-St. Lukes Medical Center). Services include: (a) Pastoral care; (b) 24-hour hotline; (c) traumatic incident debriefing services; (d) individual, marital, and familytherapy; and (e) alcohol and drug treatment, including relapse prevention and aftercare. Plansare also in the works to open a residential drug and alcohol treatment center for police officersin Chicago and surrounding communities.

Conclusion

The problems and stressors facing police officers, especially in this age when lawenforcement on the whole is undergoing paradigm changes in how it serves society, present adaunting challenge to mental health providers. As alcoholism rates continue to riseand withthem the associated problems of domestic violence and suicidethere is great need ofinitiatives that can overcome the typical barriers of suspicion and cynicism that serve toinsulate and isolate those in law enforcement. While this article has highlighted severalcutting edge programs, it should be noted that further research on the police subculture isneeded.

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Alcoholism Among Law Enforcement Personnel