The Impact of Declining Police Recruitment on Law Enforcement

Introduction

Recently there has been a downfall in recruitment for many police stations resulting in fewer employees, longer shifts, and fewer days off per week if any at all. The number of hours these officers are working due to a lack of interest in criminal justice careers can result in poor mental health, sleep deprivation, lack of protection for the community they work in as well as poor work quality for these communities as well. These law enforcement officers also sacrifice their time off that they could be spending with their families to provide as much protection as possible for their community.

The number of hours these officers are working due to a lack of interest in criminal justice careers can result in poor mental health. As many people know, everyone needs between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night to be able to function fully during daytime activities such as going to work and what is required of you at your job. When people don’t get this amount of sleep it can increase the lack of brain function which can be dangerous. Medical News Today claims that sleep deprivation is equivalent to drinking too much alcohol (Maria Cohut, P. D., 2017). During a study it was found that lack of sleep makes brain cells slow and impairs communication, 'We were fascinated to observe how sleep deprivation dampened brain cell activity,' explains lead study author Dr. Yuval Nir (Maria Cohut, P. D., 2017). He continued to state, 'Unlike the usual rapid reaction,' he says, 'the neurons responded slowly, fired more weakly, and their transmissions dragged on longer than usual.' (Maria Cohut, P. D., 2017). The reason this can be dangerous is because it can cause people to make mistakes they normally would not make and some of these may result in injury to yourself or others. Many police officers have recently been forced to work double shifts or even 24-hour shifts due to being understaffed and the recent decline in recruitment. This can cause these officers to feel drowsy and affect their alertness on the job. Researcher Dr. Fried says 'Inadequate sleep exerts a similar influence on our brain as drinking too much,' says Dr. Fried. 'Yet no legal or medical standards exist for identifying overtired drivers on the road the same way we target drunk drivers.' (Maria Cohut, P. D., 2017). These officers are going a day without sleep and possibly days without an adequate amount of sleep which can be a danger to the community. These officers need to be in top shape every day to fully protect and serve their communities.

Many of these officers that make the sacrifice for their communities also suffer from a range of mental illnesses and even some physical illnesses caused by lack of sleep and being overworked. Kathleen Doheny reports in her article on WebMD that there are many ailments associated with working long hours such as stroke, heart disease, mental health problems, diabetes, and abnormal heart rhythms (Doheny, K., 2018). Research has discovered that working 35 to 40 hours, working 55 or more hours raised the odds of having a stroke by 33% and the chance of heart disease by 13% over a 7-year span and workers putting in 55 hours or more a week, compared with 35 or 40, had a 1.4 times greater chance of having an abnormal heart rhythm (Doheny, K., 2018). Many officers may suffer from mental illnesses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), anxiety, and depression as discovered by Norwegian researchers (Doheny, K., 2018). The CDC reports, depression interferes with a person’s ability to complete physical job tasks about 20% of the time and reduces cognitive performance about 35% of the time (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019). These conditions associated with working extensive hours can be dangerous for many officers. Poor mental health and work stress can adversely effect job performance, productivity, communication with co-workers, driving safety, quality of life, work satisfaction, and both physical and mental health (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019).

Many of these issues could be solved if there was more interest in the criminal justice field. Why is there such a lack of interest in this career choice? Law enforcement has recently gotten a bad reputation through the media because of poor misconduct and many protests against police. Police officers have been enforcing laws since as early as the 1800s and recently there has been a growing issue of police brutality and people of color. As recent as 1960 there have been riots such as the Watts Riots of 1965 and the Detroit Riot of 1967 protesting the violent confrontation between police officers and the people in these communities (Edy, J. A.). With the increase in protesting law enforcement, there has also been an increase in deaths for many police officers which makes the job look very dangerous to most people. All the bad press against police officers can make possible recruits change their minds quickly about their career choice and find something else of interest. As recently as 2014 there was a 18-year-old African American man that was shot and killed by a white police officer. Many of the news headlines read “Michael Brown Shot to Death By Police”, “Police shooting death of Michael Brown” and “Michael Brown, teen shot by Police, days before college”. These news reports go on to say how Michael Brown was an African American teenager, he was going to college in the fall and he was killed by a white police officer. They failed to mention that Michael Brown was first approached for walking in the middle of the street and asked to walk on the sidewalk then was identified by the police as a person who met the description for a robbery that had happened just minutes before (DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, pg.6). The news also did not report that Brown attacked the police officer before he could even get out of his vehicle and attempted to take the officers weapon (DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, pg.6). NBC news did, however, report that there was protesting in the street for justice and chanting in the street that this neighborhood wanted to kill the police officer that shot Michael Brown.  Yes, there are some bad police officers that have made bad judgment calls because of their own bas views but most police officers are doing their best to serve their communities and keep everyone safe. They make a great sacrifice for us and we should return the favor, these men and women should be able to go home to their families every night and should be able to get a good night’s rest.

Conclusion

The media should be posting and reporting all the good law enforcement does for the community. Let’s talk about how they raised money for kids in need, or how they protect the community from harm, how about the officers that stay with the kids who parents just overdosed and may not be coming home. Where are all the stories highlighting how great police officers are? If there were more of those uplifting stories in the media, there would be a line out the door of men and women wanting to join the police force and do some good for their community or others. Then there would be enough officers to take multiple open shifts and improve the quality of work performed as well as the quality of life for many officers.

References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019, April 10). Mental Health in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/tools-resources/workplace-health/mental-health/index.html
2. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE REPORT REGARDING THE CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE SHOOTING DEATH OF MICHAEL BROWN BY FERGUSON, MISSOURI POLICE OFFICER DARREN WILSON MARCH. (2015, March 4). Retrieved January 28, 2020, from https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/doj_report_on_shooting_of_michael_brown_1.pdf
3. Doheny, K. (2018, July 16). Working Yourself to Death: Long Hours Bring Risks. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/balance/stress-management/news/20180716/working-yourself-to-death-long-hours-bring-risks
4. Edy, J. A. (2019, August 4). Watts Riots of 1965. Retrieved January 28, 2020, from https://www.britannica.com/event/Watts-Riots-of-1965
5. Maria Cohut, P. D. (2017, November 7). To the brain, sleep deprivation is 'like drinking too much'. Retrieved January 30, 2020, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319986.php#1