Separating fact from fiction about police stress: the author examines long-standing beliefs.

Mental health professionals need accurate information regarding police stress, especially since 9/11. Increased anxiety among families of police officers (and other public safety workers) can be normalized in treatment settings with accurate information. But the myths that prevail about and within law enforcement are staggering.

Here's a test of your knowledge about stress effects that might help in discussing these myths and separating the facts from fiction. Determine whether each of the following is a myth about police stress by answering with true or false:

1. Police officers have a higher suicide rate than the general population.

2. Traumatic stress debriefings in group settings following a critical incident have been proven effective in reducing long-term stress effects.

3. Police officers who are involved in shootings in which a subject dies most often make a full psychological recovery.

4. Law enforcement is the most dangerous occupation.

5. Police officers are psychologically healthy and have low rates of alcoholism and divorce when compared to the general population.

Answers: 1. false, 2. false, 3. true, 4. false, 5. true. Surprised at your score?

This article will not provide details about the origins of the erroneous beliefs or the undercurrent of political agendas that sometimes fuel them. However, this article will help make sense of these points--thus:

1. Police officers have a higher suicide rate than the general population--false. Suicide among police officers has been a controversial subject, and became the focus of a 1999 invitational conference at the FBI Quantico, Virginia, campus. Approximately 50 to 60 experts from around the world from the fields of suicidology, academic psychology, law enforcement, and police psychology, along with a surviving spouse and others, spent several days reviewing the subject. Some findings from the conference, published in Suicide and Law Enforcement, (1) conclude that the statistical rate of suicide by police officers is not greater than that of the general population when controlled for sex, age, and race. In fact, compelling statistical analyses by Aamodt and Stalnaker found that law enforcement personnel are 26% less likely to commit suicide. (2)

2. Traumatic stress debriefings in group settings following a critical incident have been proven effective in reducing long-term stress effects--false. I regret letting this cat out of the bag, but group intervention has not been demonstrated to be effective and, in fact, may produce harmful effects.