Diurnal Cortisol Variation According to High-Risk Occupational Specialty Within Police

Planche, Kyle; Chan, Jennifer; Nota, Paula M. Di; Beston, Brett; Boychuk, Evelyn C.; Collins, Peter; Andersen, Judith P.

doi:10.1097/jom.0000000000001591

Cited by 24 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…After three months, most of the officers reported that they could return to regular police tasks, which reduced their work load. Since changes are rather small and officers are considered chronically stressed in the literature ( Allison et al, 2019 ; Anonymous, 2020 ; Planche et al, 2019 ; Violanti et al, 2016 ), it seems plausible to assume that the “average” officer was only mildly affected by the pandemic.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European police officers: Stress, demands, and coping resources

Frenkel

Giessing

Egger-Lampl

et al. 2021

Journal of Criminal Justice

130

131

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Purpose Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, police officers are confronted with various novel challenges, which might place additional strain on officers. This mixed-method study investigated officers' strain over three months after the lockdown. Methods In an online survey, 2567 police officers (77% male) from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Spain participated at three measurement points per country in spring, 2020. Three-level growth curve models assessed changes in strain and its relation to stressor appraisal, emotion regulation, and preparedness through training. To add context to the findings, free response answers about officers' main tasks, stressors, and crisis measures were coded inductively. Results On average, officers seemed to tolerate the pandemic with slight decreases in strain over time. Despite substantial variance between countries, 66% of the variance occurred between individuals. Sex, work experience, stressor appraisal, emotion regulation, and preparedness significantly predicted strain. Risk of infection and deficient communication emerged as main stressors. Officers' reports allowed to derive implications for governmental, organizational, and individual coping strategies during pandemics. Conclusion Preparing for a pandemic requires three primary paths: 1) enacting unambiguous laws and increasing public compliance through media communication, 2) being logistically prepared, and 3) improving stress regulation skills in police training.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European police officers: Stress, demands, and coping resources

Frenkel

Giessing

Egger-Lampl

et al. 2021

Journal of Criminal Justice

130

131

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Stress can also be triggered by “real” external cues in the environment (e.g., presence of a lethal weapon) or by internal psychological states (e.g., fear or anticipation of observing a lethal weapon), further complicating the investigation of how stress impacts police performance. Recent evidence shows that law enforcement personnel have significantly higher baseline levels of cortisol relative to the general population, and that tactical officers exposed to greater occupational threat have even higher levels of cortisol than frontline police officers (Planche et al, 2019), bearing greatly on the long-term health trajectories for individuals in high-risk occupations. Thus, individual and occupationally mediated differences in stress responses confound the determination of where any single police officer (or individual) lies on the stress-memory continuum (Figure 2), and what level of stress meets the threshold for maladaptive arousal.…”

Section: The Influence Of Stress On Police Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Police are also entrusted to resolve potentially dangerous or violent encounters, in some cases necessitating the use of force. As a result, law enforcement personnel are exposed to high levels of occupational stress, which have been shown to pose risks to physical and mental health (Carleton et al, 2018, 2019; Planche et al, 2019). Policing skills, including physical capabilities and mental resiliency, are modifiable by training and experience and have an influence on police decision-making and performance in the field.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Complex Motor Learning and Police Training: Applied, Cognitive, and Clinical Perspectives

Nota

Huhta

2019

Front. Psychol.

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The practices surrounding police training of complex motor skills, including the use of force, varies greatly around the world, and even over the course of an officer’s career. As the nature of policing changes with society and the advancement of science and technology, so should the training practices that officers undertake at both central (i.e., police academy basic recruit training) and local (i.e., individual agency or precinct) levels. The following review is intended to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and applied practice to inform best practices for training complex motor skills that are unique and critical to law enforcement, including the use of lethal force. We begin by providing a basic understanding of the fundamental cognitive processes underlying motor learning, from novel skill acquisition to complex behaviors including situational awareness, and decision-making that precede and inform action. Motor learning, memory, and perception are then discussed within the context of occupationally relevant stress, with a review of evidence-based training practices that promote officer performance and physiological responses to stress during high-stakes encounters. A lack of applied research identifying the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying motor learning in police is inferred from a review of evidence from various clinical populations suffering from disorders of cognitive and motor systems, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease and stroke. We conclude this review by identifying practical, organizational, and systemic challenges to implementing evidence-based practices in policing and provide recommendations for best practices that will promote training effectiveness and occupational safety of end-users (i.e., police trainers and officers).

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“…Extended periods of stress and elevated levels of GCs can alter brain function and increase vulnerability to neurological disease (McEwen, 2000; Madrigal et al, 2003; Cottrell and Seckl, 2009), including those conditions that affect motor function. Recent evidence shows consistently elevated levels of diurnal (i.e., daily fluctuating) CORT among police officers relative to the general population, with specialized tactical officers demonstrating even higher levels of resting CORT than frontline officers (Planche et al, 2019). These findings provide a physiological basis for long-term risk of physical and mental disorders among law enforcement personnel (Franke et al, 2002; Ramey et al, 2009; Joseph et al, 2010; Violanti et al, 2018), which may be further compounded by the level of risk exposure in policing subspecialties (Planche et al, 2019).…”

Section: Physiological Responses To Acute Stress Exposures and Their mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Acute Stress Physiology on Skilled Motor Performance: Implications for Policing

Anderson¹,

Nota

Metz

et al. 2019

Front. Psychol.

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Investigations of police performance during acutely stressful situations have primarily focused on higher-order cognitive processes like attention, affect or emotion and decision-making, and the behavioral outcomes of these processes, such as errors in lethal force. However, behavioral outcomes in policing must be understood as a combination of both higher-order processes and the physical execution of motor skills. What is missing from extant police literature is an understanding of how physiological responses to acute stress contribute to observed decrements in skilled motor performance at the neuromuscular level. The purpose of the current paper is to fill this knowledge gap in the following ways: (1) review scientific evidence for the physiological (i.e., autonomic, endocrine, and musculoskeletal) responses to acutely stressful exposures and their influence on skilled motor performance in both human and animal models, (2) review applied evidence on occupationally relevant stress physiology and observed motor decrements in performance among police, and (3) discuss the implications of stress physiology for police training and identify future directions for applied researchers. Evidence is compelling that skill decay is inevitable under high levels of acute stress; however, robust evidence-informed training practices can help mitigate this decay and contribute to officer safety.

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Diurnal Cortisol Variation According to High-Risk Occupational Specialty Within Police

Cited by 24 publications

References 29 publications

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European police officers: Stress, demands, and coping resources

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on European police officers: Stress, demands, and coping resources

Complex Motor Learning and Police Training: Applied, Cognitive, and Clinical Perspectives

The Impact of Acute Stress Physiology on Skilled Motor Performance: Implications for Policing

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