NCJ Number
79981
Date Published
1980
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This film examines the impact of stress on patrol officers through interviews with a stress expert, a police psychologist in Philadelphia, and police officers in Detroit, Philadelphia, and Boston. Police abuses in these cities and police department actions to meet the problem of stress are also examined.
Abstract
Police today have a suicide rate far above the national average. Alcoholism is widespread and the divorce rate is high. In some instances this stress can lead to an excessive use of police deadly force. In most cities, guidelines for the use of deadly force have been evolving. However, in Philadelphia under Police Commissioner and later Mayor Frank Rizzo, no guidelines were adopted; according to the interviewees, the policy was to defend the police in all cases charging police brutality and to ignore questionable cases. Although the city now has a deadly force directive, polarization between citizens and the police remains a problem as illustrated by several recent cases involving the death of an officer and a suspect. While counseling programs for officers with emotional problems do not exist in Philadelphia and Detroit, Boston has instituted a stress program that is attracting the attention of other law enforcement agencies. In the Boston program, trained counselors man a 24-hour stress unit isolated from the rest of the department. The film shows a group session for Boston officers who have suffered from stress.