Stress Problems Faced by Police Constables in North Chennai

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Volume : 2 | Issue : 4 | April 2013 ISSN No 2277 - 8160

Research Paper Social Science

Stress Problems Faced by Police Constables in North

Chennai

S.Srinivasan Department of Social Work, Bharathidasan University, Khajamalai Campus, Trichy

KEYWORDS: Stress, Physiological, Police Constables, North Chennai

This research study more emphases on stress aced by Police Constables in North Chennai. This article analyses thedata rom a ty sample size, and proposes ways to stress aced by police constable in north Chennai. The researchercovers the geographical area o Chennai and suburban, where researcher six police stations dealing with crime and law

and order. The researcher used descriptive in nature. The researcher used convenient sampling method or selecting the respondents. Majorityo the respondents 82 percent o the respondents were admit that they had psychosomatic complaints. 70 percent said that they easily gettempered. Most o the respondents 74 percent were agreed that expressed rom o emotion is due to their occupation. Majority o the respondents76 percent have the habit o smoking. Majority o 72 percent o the respondents had the habit o consuming alcohol. Majority o the respondents74 percent agreed the lack o superiors interest on subordinate is a cause or stress. Most o the respondents 70 agreed that irregular ofce workcauses stress. 60 percent o the respondents agree with the statement that work beyond load is highly stressul. 72 percent o the respondentssaid dealing with criminals was stressul. 78 percent o the respondents conrmed the death o their relatives as stressul. Majority 74 percent o

the respondents agreed that dealing with horrible sights caused stress.

ABSTRACT

Dr. P. Ilango Department of Social Work, Bharathidasan University, Khajamalai Campus, Trichy

INTRODUCTIONAll individuals aced stress every day. When stress is in optimumlevel it can help a person under pressure, motivate him to do hisbest. But beyond a certain point stress stops being helpul andstarts causing major damage to ones health, moods, productiv-ity, relationship and quality o lie. Police work is considered tobe one o stressul jobs. Stress is dened as a response to per-ceived threat, challenge or change, a physical and psychologicalresponse to any demand, a state o psychological and physical

arousal.In past two decades stress has been recognized as a ma-jor problem in many occupations. Police occupation is entitledas a stressul job. Police occupation is entitled as a stressul job.Police men are obliged to attend people call whenever they are inneed. Their prime responsibility is to restore the peace among thecommunity and enorcement o law.

Police department is one o the departments o governmentwhich has large number o employees. They are given dierentrank in their departments that start rom constable to directorgeneral o police. Constable is the lowest o the rank in the hi-erarchy. They are ound more in number compared to the otherranks. They are more prone to stress psychological and physicalproblem. They work a lot and seldom received any rewards. Stressplays an important role in determining their good health andsound mind.

Stress is an unavoidable eature o modern living. Everyone needsto ace challenges in order to get as much out o lie as they can.

There are dangers that some challenges are more dicult thanothers to handle or overcome. I these challenges are not dealtwith they can cause high levels o negative stress or distress.Stress is thus a phenomenon o direct relevance and concern to alarge proportion o inhabitants o the world today, as it needs tobe ought, investigated and managed.

Statement o the problemPolice occupation is psychologically a stressul work since the en-vironment is lled with danger, high demands and ambiguity in

work encounters, human misery and exposure to death. This is animportant issue to address, because the consequences o workstress can adversely aect their work, material lie as well a threatto the saety o police ocers, their co-workers, their amilies andriends. The non supportive culture in police department andbad image among public contributes decrease in the standard owork.

This study tries to nd out the problems in general and the actor

that contributes to the problem. This study will be useul to thepolice department in helping their employees. The police depart-ment and government to decide whether proactive programmeare indeed necessary or not i necessary then the outline o theissues need to be addressed.

General ObjectiveTo study the stress actors that aect the wellbeing o policemanand amily especially their work.

Specifc Objective1. To study the demographic details o police constables2. To know the socio-economic condition o police constables3. To study the amily condition o the respondents4. To study the working environment o police constables5. To understand the actors that inuence o contribute to police stress6. To study the health status o the respondents7. To fnd out the outcome o stress.

METHODOLOGYThe researcher has chosen northern zone o Chennai city. Thenorthern zone has consisted o 31 police stations and the consta-bles strength in this zone is 1220. It covers the geographical areao Chennai and suburban, where researcher six police stationsdealing with crime and law and order.

Research designThe design o the study is descriptive in nature. Because it de-scribes the psychological, social and physical problem and stressaced by police constables in their workplace and their amilies.

Sampling methodThe researcher used convenient sampling method or selectingthe respondents. Samples include constables who reported tothe police station. As stated earlier the researcher selected re-spondents rom all six police stations. The sampling size or thisstudy was ty.

Tools o data collectionResearcher has used interview schedule to collect required databecause compared to the questionnaire the interview schedulewill be more eective to get deeper inormation rom the re-spondents. One to one interaction will acilitate sooth interactionbetween interviewers and interviewee. The respondents may per-ceive question in their own way. This interview schedule helpedthe researcher to explain questions to the respondents and internto gather related inormation in details.


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Limitation o the studyThis study sample size was only conned to Chennai and its sur-rounding areas. This in terms o geographical coverage. Thereorecannot generalize to others areas without conducting a similarstudy to validate these ndings.

This study was conducted only with constables other ocers notincluded.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

According to Corelli (1994), to handle the pressures o the job,the guys join together and the avourite pastime is drinking. It isthe odd policeman who doesnt drink. According to Corelli (1994)police ocers take alcohol to orget the things theyve seen. Po-licemen do drink on duty and its actually easier or plainclothespolicemen to drink on duty than uniormed policemen. However,the policeman who develops a drinking problem is rejected by hiscolleagues or his weakness and likes in ear o his commander.Sometimes i a police ocial has nowhere to turn to, he will com-mit suicide. According to Violanti (1999) alcohol abuse amongpolice ocers in the US is about double that o the general popu-lation where 1 in 10 adults abuses alcohol, as stated by Maclean(1994). Excessive use can impair an individuals ability to unctionproperly at home and at work. This can prove particularly danger-

ous or ocials. According to Skender (1997), owing to the healthand saety hazards posed by drug abuse in both the workplaceand the wider community, drug-abuse testing programmes wereimplemented or police ocials in Croatia. According to MaClean(cited in Corelli, 1997), binge drinking is a release rom the highexperience by working 10-12 hour shits, and witnessing trauma.

FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONIn the chapter the researcher has presented the main ndings othe study.

It is evident that sixty our percent o the respondents were abovethe age o 46. Majority o the respondents 86 percent completedtheir high school. Ninety percent o the respondents were mar-

ried. Thirty our percent said that personal inspiration is the moti-vation to join the police department. Majority o 64 percent o therespondents were living in nuclear amilies. Most o the respond-ents 52 percent expressed that this do not have enough time tospend with their amilies. Majority 62 percent o the respond-ents spouse have completed their only their schooling. Fortyeight percent o the respondents have borrowed loans. About44 percent o the respondents disclose their personal problemsto their riends. About ty eight percent o the respondents donot attend social unctions and celebration due to their routinework. A high protection o eighty two percent o the respondentsvisit doctors or medical assistance. Sixty eight percent o the re-spondents do exercises or being t. A majority 68 percent o therespondents admit that they dont eat on time. More than hal 56percent o the respondents elt that they were not taking healthy

ood. Majority 62 percent o the respondents experienced traumain their lives. Majority o the respondents 82 percent o the re-spondents were admit that they had psychosomatic complaints.70 percent said that they easily get tempered.

Most o the respondents 74 percent were agreed that expressedrom o emotion is due to their occupation. Sizeable number 36percent o respondent accepted that they have suicidal thoughts.Majority o the respondents 76 percent have the habit o smok-ing. Majority o 72 percent o the respondents had the habit oconsuming alcohol. A sizable number o this thirty percent o therespondents admitted to have sleep diculties. Twenty eight per-cent o the respondents eel that police occupation carries pres-sure and demand. A majority 52 percent o the respondents aced

diculties in getting leave. A about 64 percent reported that theywere treated unairly by their higher ocials. Majority 54 percento the respondents agreed that constables were used or doinghigher ocials personal work. 66 percent o the respondents weresatised with their work. Majority o the respondents 74 percentagreed the lack o superiors interest on subordinate is a cause or

stress. About 64 percent o the respondents experienced stressdue to use o orce by the ocers. Most o the respondents 70agreed that irregular oce work causes stress. 60 percent o therespondents agree with the statement that work beyond load ishighly stressul. Thirty our percent o the respondents supportedthe statement that unpleasant duties are stressul.

54 percent o the respondents agreed the experience o stressdaily with suicidal scenes. 42 percent o the respondents agreedthat low salary is one o the reasons or stress. 72 percent o the

respondents said dealing with criminals was stressul. 78 per-cent o the respondents conrmed the death o their relativesas stressul. 50 percent o the respondents agreed that dealingwith crisis is stressul. Nearly hal o the respondents 44 percentreported dealing with violence as stressul. Majority 74 percent othe respondents agreed that dealing with horrible sights causedstress. The majority 64 percent o the respondents supported thestatement that rigid authoritarian system was stressul. About 56percent o the respondents agreed that excessive supervision,criticisms by supervisors is a source o occupational stress.

Suggestion and ConclusionThe researcher suggests the ollowing measures to be taken tominimise the stress experienced by the constables to the de-

partment o police. This study nd out reasonable suggestionto tackle stress among police men regular stress relie camps,yoga sessions and other such programmes should be organizedor the city police periodically. The police should be taught to usethe power o communication and persuasion. They should bemore sensitive, especially while dealing with public. They (Con-stabulary) should no longer be treated as a cadre meant only orduties o a mechanical character. They should be recruited andtrained so that they could be deployed on duties involving exer-cise o discretion and judgement so as to get public co-operationand understanding in any situation. They should be able to assistSub-Inspectors in enquires and investigations in a positive andpurposeul manner. They should pick up work experience in sucha manner that in ve or six years that they are able to handle in-

vestigation work independently and rise to the level o AssistantSub Inspector and upwards.

The promotional structure within the system should be radicallyrevised to permit a smooth and quick promotional fow rom therank o constable. The department make constables to arise to thehighest level by showing his worth in the perormance o policetask. Making the subordinates sense that higher ocial are acces-sible, approachable and available or ocial work o or personalhelp will inuse condence and relieves stress o the subordinatesto a large extent. A stress ree person perorms better. A man willbe able to take proper care o his amily only when he gets ade-quate time. Each individual should get adequate time and the du-ties should be properly rotated. In order to ensure that there is nogross misuse o manpower, it is important that manpower audit is

taken by the concerned. Specic scale and denite norms shouldbe prescribed or deviations rom police station duties. A leadershould be able to gather enough intelligence about the move-ments o his men, know their mental make up, understand theirindividual attitudes, should be able to motivate them to work orthe accomplishment o the task given by him. Above all, the sub-ordinates should have a ear o punishment or doing wrong andat the same time eel condent o being rewarded suitably ortheir sincerity, dedication, loyalty, to duty and hard work.

Taking care o career, health, leave, housing, transer and amilyneeds o the personnel should be given due importance. Pamperyoursel rom time to time or eg. Healthy message will help men-tal relaxation and physical well being. Going out with your col-

leagues and their amilies can really help in bonding and can beloads o un. Relaxation therapies could benet them. Awarenessshould be created in the amily and community about the occu-pational stress o police men and ways to cope with it. Awarenessthrough media (News paper, TV, Documentary).


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REFERENCES[1] Chande. M.B. (1997). The Police in India, Published by Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. [2] Arvind Verma, (2005). The Indian Police: acritical evaluation, Published by Daya Books, [3] S.M. Channabasavanna, (1996).Occupational Stress and Mental Health o Police Personnel inIndia. Published by National Institute o Mental Health [sic] and Neuro Sciences, 98 Pages [4] Agolia. J.E, (2009). Occupational Stress amongpolice ocers: The case o Botswana police service by Research Jouranl o business management 2(1); 25-35. [5] Gregory S. Anderson, Robin

Litzenberger. (2006). Physical evidence o police oces stress by policing:an international journal o police strategies &management, volume 25, page 399. [6] Madu.S.N andPoodhum E.A. (2006). Stress symptoms and substance use among police ocials in the central region o Limpop province, South Arica by J.Soc.Sci, 12(3); 213-224. [7] Donals.I,Johnson.S Cooper.C, Cartwright. Work environment, stress and productivity.

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Stress Problems Faced by Police Constables in North Chennai