Work and Family Services for Law Enforcement Personnel in the United States, 1995

This study was undertaken to provide current information
 on work and family issues from the police officer's perspective, and
 to explore the existence and prevalence of work and family training
 and intervention programs offered nationally by law enforcement
 agencies. Three different surveys were employed to collect data for
 this study. First, a pilot study was conducted in which a
 questionnaire, designed to elicit information on work and family
 issues in law enforcement, was distributed to 1,800 law enforcement
 officers representing 21 municipal, suburban, and rural police
 agencies in western New York State (Part 1). Demographic information
 in this Work and Family Issues in Law Enforcement (WFILE)
 questionnaire included the age, gender, ethnicity, marital status,
 highest level of education, and number of years in law enforcement of
 each respondent. Respondents also provided information on which
 agency they were from, their job title, and the number of children
 and step-children they had. The remaining items on the WFILE
 questionnaire fell into one of the following categories: (1) work and
 family orientation, (2) work and family issues, (3) job's influence
 on spouse/significant other, (4) support by spouse/significant other,
 (5) influence of parental role on the job, (6) job's influence on
 relationship with children, (7) job's influence on relationships and
 friendships, (8) knowledge of programs to assist with work and family
 issues, (9) willingness to use programs to assist with work and
 family issues, (10) department's ability to assist officers with work
 and family issues, and (11) relationship with officer's
 partner. Second, a Police Officer Questionnaire (POQ) was developed
 based on the results obtained from the pilot study. The POQ was sent
 to over 4,400 officers in police agencies in three geographical
 locations: the Northeast (New York City, New York, and surrounding
 areas), the Midwest (Minneapolis, Minnesota, and surrounding areas),
 and the Southwest (Dallas, Texas, and surrounding areas) (Part
 2). Respondents were asked questions measuring their health,
 exercise, alcohol and tobacco use, overall job stress, and the number
 of health-related stress symptoms experienced within the last
 month. Other questions from the POQ addressed issues of concern to
 the Police Research and Education Project -- a sister organization of
 the National Association of Police Organizations -- and its
 membership. These questions dealt with collective bargaining, the Law
 Enforcement Officer's Bill of Rights, residency requirements, and
 high-speed pursuit policies and procedures. Demographic variables
 included gender, age, ethnicity, marital status, highest level of
 education, and number of years employed in law enforcement. Third, to
 identify the extent and nature of services that law enforcement
 agencies provided for officers and their family members, an Agency
 Questionnaire (AQ) was developed (Part 3). The AQ survey was
 developed based on information collected from previous research
 efforts, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
 (Part W-Family Support, subsection 2303 [b]), and from information
 gained from the POQ. Data collected from the AQ consisted of whether
 the agency had a mission statement, provided any type of mental
 health service, and had a formalized psychological services
 unit. Respondents also provided information on the number of sworn
 officers in their agency and the gender of the officers. The
 remaining questions requested information on service providers, types
 of services provided, agencies' obstacles to use of services,
 agencies' enhancement of services, and the organizational impact of
the services.

Tags: demographic-characteristics, family-counseling, family-relations, family-work-relationship, intervention, job-satisfaction, job-stress, law-enforcement-agencies, police-officers, police-training
Organization: Department of Justice