“Risk It Out, Risk It Out”: Occupational and Organizational Stresses in Rural Policing

Abstract

In rural areas, police experience unique work-related health and safety risks attributable to a multitude of factors, ranging from inaccessible backup to navigating inclement weather alongside geographic obstacles. Although the result of institutional and organizational structures, operational (job content) and organizational (job context) risk must be recontextualized in the rural context. In the current study, I contextualize understandings of risk, referring to a lack of safety shaped by either a physical, administrative, legal, or emotional feeling of vulnerability-or a combination of such-for rural officers that results from occupational experiences of understaffing and insufficient material resources. Drawing on transcripts from 14 focus groups with 49 officers across rank, I extrapolate the effects of understaffing on officer experiences of work-role overload and the resulting stress. Findings reveal how officers' perceptions of risk are impacted by such factors, and how risk is interpreted as either preventable (i.e., organizational) or unavoidable (i.e., operational). In this context, risk knowledges of occupational realities shape the occupational role and well-being of officers working in rural and remote detachments. Preliminary policy implications are presented.

Assessing the Relative Impact of Diverse Stressors among Public Safety Personnel

“…Organizational stressors are frequently defined as the stressors associated with job context or setting. Examples of organizational stressors include staff shortages, a lack of training on new equipment, a lack of appropriate resources, inconsistent leadership styles, and a perceived lack of support between co-workers and leaders [13,14,26,27]. Organizational management structure, as well as the resulting policies and practices, can also become sources of daily occupational stress [28].…”

“…Operational stressors, on the other hand, typically refer to the stressors directly tied to work content or duties. Examples of operational stressors can include PPTEs, but also issues such as fatigue from shift work and overtime, job-related risk of injury (e.g., lower back pain), social life limitations, and the inescapability of work [13,14,26]. Previous research has supported the use of the operational and organizational constructs in a wide variety of PSP occupations, including police [13,28,29], firefighters [30], paramedics [31], and corrections [32].…”

Canadian Public Safety Personnel and Occupational Stressors: How PSP Interpret Stressors on Duty

“…The impact of PPTEs can be exacerbated by stressors within the work environment [ 14 ]; as such, researchers have worked to clarify how occupational stressors, including organizational (e.g., job context such as inconsistent leadership styles) and operational (e.g., job content such as negative encounters with the public) stressors, shape PSP experiences, mental health, and well-being [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. For example, Carleton and colleagues [ 14 ] found evidence that PSP report work-related stressors (e.g., staff shortages, shift work) that were associated with mental health challenges including anxiety and mood disorders, even after controlling for PPTE exposures.…”

“…Duxbury and Higgins [ 16 ] broke down occupational stressors, stressors inherent to any employment, into Organizational (job context) and Operational (job content) stressors. Organizational stressors (job context) constitute one of the most common and tangible forms of occupational stress impacting PSP and have undeniable physiological and cognitive implications [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 20 ]. The management structure/philosophy of a PSP organization, and the resulting policy and practices, can constitute daily stressors at work [ 21 ].…”

Household and Neighbourhood Responses to House Burglary in Ibadan

“…Muggah (2012) reports that property crime in the form of burglaries, along with violent crimes, are on the rise within cities, globally. Studies by Weisheit and Donnermeyer (2000), Lee (2006), National Centre for Victims of Crime (2015) and Ricciardelli (2018) also state that household burglary is also a prevailing issue within rural settings across the globe.…”