The recent use of force in the United States’ law enforcement has become one of the most heavily debated topics and has left our country in a place of division reminiscent to that of the civil rights movement. The most popular reason that critics give to describe the sometimes excessive use of force by police officers is that there is systemic racism in all areas of law enforcement. However, there are other significant causes of violence in the line of duty. Being an officer of the law is an extremely demanding occupation that leads to countless stresses that most civilians will never experience.  The responsibilities that are entailed by simply wearing a badge is enough to make anyone go gray and when you factor in all of the unnatural strain officers experience, it is easier to force yourself to see things through their eyes and understand the thought process behind their often unpopular decisions. Some of the things that cause their anxiety include long shifts (often due to overtime), physical strain, and changes in day to day duties. Perhaps the most significant area of stress, that has become increasingly prevalent is the lack of trust by citizens, leading to a poor relationship between the community and law enforcement. Everyone has experienced stress at some point in their life and can relate to how it effects their performance, whatever that may be. Stress is something that has different effects on people but nonetheless effects everyone. Many studies have been done that show stress has similar general effects on performance, and how these effects translate in police work is an important aspect of understanding officer’s decision making. Everyone can agree that the use of force is never good and while often times it is necessary, there can still be steps taken to prevent its regularity. By looking at the factors that increase the stress of policing, an already extremely difficult job, and learning about the effects stress has on performance, we can begin to understand the reasons behind the use of force by police that does not stem from racism. 

Being a police officer means that you are an enforcer of the law in the most powerful country in the world, putting lots of pressure on officers to be perfect. Police have a sense of responsibility that is second to none. In a country that prides itself on being the land of the free, part of the police’s job is to take some of those freedoms away from people. While criminals are the ones who have their freedoms taken way, it is still no easy task to be the one to take that first step. This unrivaled responsibility can cause stress for police officers that is absent in other occupations. When police officers decide to take that path, they know what they’re signing up for but just having that knowledge doesn’t make it any easier to cope with the hardships of the job. Unlike many jobs, nine to five workdays are more uncommon among police forces and often, officers aren’t even lucky enough to keep the same shift for a long period of time. Not only are these police overworked, but their bodies can’t develop a solid schedule because they’re constantly switching shifts. In fact, shifts are one of the top stressors for police, according to a study done in 1995, “The highest ranked organizational stressor was shift work.” (Violanti, 289). 

Another source of stress for police officers is one that doesn’t occur with extreme regularity, but when it does, it causes anxiety for police officers in more extreme form. Police officers are put in extremely difficult situations where one decision could change everything. This source of stress can vary but it refers to times when officers are confronted by citizens who pose a threat. The threat could involve a weapon, or it could simply be a physical danger where the officer is much smaller than the person posing a threat. Most civilians will never experience these types of situations, where one choice could be the difference between you going home to your family at the end of the night or you being forced into early retirement. These high pressure situations are extremely stressful in the moment but their effects on officers can be lasting. While these circumstances are in fact part of the job, officers should not be expected to have the ability to brush them off like nothing. Simulations are done to help prepare officers to make the best decision possible if they are faced with a difficult decision, however, no matter how much preparation an officer does, nothing can fully prepare them for the real thing. 

Another common stressor among police officers is the extremely negative light that they are seen in. A 2011 study shows that “68 % of Whites and only 18 % of Whites expressed confidence in law enforcement” (Chaney, 2013). This negative view of the police helps to strain the relationships that police have with their communities, adding extra stress that officers then need to deal with. The relationship between police and the community varies in different areas but most places show some sort of distrust of the police. Without a mutual trust, everyone is in more danger, as Kansas City’s Chief of Police, Darryl Forte put it, “Everyone’s safety is put at risk when communities lack the trust to work together to fight violence.” (Forte, 5). This distrust has been increasing recently along with the increase of technology. It is very easy now for bystanders to film encounters with the police and upload them to the internet. Once these types of videos surface, millions of law enforcements harshest critics start objecting to the decisions of the respective officer or officers, often times before they even know the whole story. These strained relationships between the police and the communities adds an abundant amount of unnecessary stress that is difficult to deal with, a 2002 study found that over 80% of officers feel that the public views them in an unfair light. (Liberman, 10). Police officers have a job in which their main priority is to serve and protect, it is very difficult for many to understand that the people they are trying to help do not trust them or their motives. 

Stress has different effects that can change moods, behavior, and even effect parts of the body. A common symptom of stress is problems with sleep. The lack of sleep that can come from stress leads to a greater amount of daily fatigue. In a profession that requires the full attention of the worker, a lack of sleep and more fatigue can be a serious issue when it comes to job performance. Many police officers work long hours and suffer the effects exhaustion without stress as a factor, but with that added, the effects can be even more significant. Stress has also been shown to cause muscle tension and pain, a less common side effect but nevertheless an important one. Jobs in law enforcement are physically demanding and require officers to be in shape and have the ability to be active when needed. Because of the demands of being a police officer, any physical stress can be just as significant as mental stress. One physical state stress can effect is that of depth perception. A study done in 2006 suggests that perception of distances can be effected by someone’s state of mind, “distance perception is not solely based on objective information… but also on physiological and psychological states” (Nieuwenhuys, et all), this is significant because the distance of a suspect can effect officer’s decisions. The closer a suspect is to an officer, the more imminent the threat and the more likely an officer is to shoot. If their perception is altered due to stress this can lead to avoidable uses of force. 

Other symptoms of stress have been shown to have effects on mood. One effect stress has on moods is an increasing lack of focus. A 2007 study observed that stress can decrease motivation, helping those who experience it to lose focus and become more anxious and depressed (Krueger, 130). Other mood changes that stem from stress can include starting to feel overwhelmed and an increase in irritability. These could become serious changes in temper that, when combined with other pressures placed on police might affect their decision making. 

Stress has effects that are seen everywhere, but when applied to the job of a police officer they can take on a whole new significance. The side effects of stress such as sleep loss can bring negative effects to police’s judgement. When put in difficult situations and confronted with the decision of whether to use force, officers have enough difficulty making the choice without outside actors. When you pile on the added stress officers are forced to deal with these decisions become even harder.  The stress causes more pressure on the police and can sometimes lead to them deciding to use force that could have been avoided. It is never good to see the police having to use force when engaging with suspects, while it is often a necessary evil, there are some instances that are well over the top and lack any adequate justification for the actions taken. In some cases, where the police’s use of force is excessive, it can seem as though the officer’s decisions were highly racially motivated. Racism does exist in some police officers, it occurs everywhere, it is not just a problem of the past. However, much of the force used by the police does not come from a universal racism issue in law enforcement.  Police should be held to a higher standard due to their responsibilities, but a few bad cops should not be allowed to destroy the credibility of a remarkable system, full of people who risk their lives every day to protect those around them.  When the men and women of law enforcement start their jobs, they agree to protect and serve, they are not agreeing to protect and serve one race or one set of people, but the entire community they represent. Some officers at times let their personal beliefs conflict with their duties and these officers should be, and often are, punished for their transgressions. As a nation, we are quick to judge every little thing without attempting to understand the context behind it and this is a dangerous game that has led us down a path that has further divided us.  

It is no question that race has played a role in some cases of excessive force but to understand the underlying matter behind most cases, it takes putting yourself behind the badge and looking at each instance through a different lens. During my senior year of high school, I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Cleveland’s FBI office and was able to speak to several agents and even participate in a simulation that agents go through. This simulation is referred to as FATS, which stands for firearms training system. In this simulation, there are hundreds of different scenarios in which there are civilians with weapons and the officers must decide whether to use force. I had a unique opportunity to use this simulator and go through several different scenarios. I was shocked by the results. Standing in front of a screen in the safest building in Cleveland, my heart was racing faster than it ever had, feeling the threat of a gun on a screen. While I am not a trained law enforcement officer, it still amazed me how nerve-wracking it was having to make those split-second decisions and it helped me understand the anxiety officers must feel when confronted with those situations in real life, facing real consequences. 

The nerves that I felt during that situation were no easy obstacle to get by, the pressure of certain simulations were able to affect my judgement. For instance, in one scenario, you are walking back to your car and are confronted with an armed robber holding a gun. At first I tried to talk him down but when he raised his gun I shot him. This was the right decision, however, that was not the end of the simulation. After the suspect goes down, another person comes onto the screen from the side. This person is yelling at you and threatening to call the police as he does not know what happened. As he threatens to call the police, he holds his phone and is waving it toward the screen. I had no idea that he was part of the simulation so it startled me when he came into the picture, and when I saw what turned out to be a phone, I believed it was a gun so I chose to shoot him as well. It was not until after the FBI instructor informed me that I failed that scenario that I learned the second individual was holding a cell phone and not a gun. This entire experience, especially the one scenario, was incredibly enlightening for me. I was already someone who respected and trusted the police, although I did have my doubts about how difficult it actually is to make decisions about the use of force.  This experience eliminated those doubts as it was more difficult for me to make those same decisions I thought would be easy, in a safe environment. 

Though my experience helped me to understand things more from a police officer’s perspective, no one likes seeing people get hurt, and everyone could benefit if we looked at ways to decrease the rate of violence in the field of law enforcement. The first step to having useful discussions about this topic would be to stop placing blame. Too much of this debate revolves around civilians blaming the police and police blaming civilians. One of the biggest stressors for police is the poor community relations that exist all across the US. One of the most important and quite possibly easiest steps for progress would be to fix these relations and reinstitute a mutual trust of both police and civilians. It would benefit civilians to go through the simulation that I did so they could have an easier time putting themselves in the police’s shoes. This, however, is not a realistic solution as there are too many people and too few resources to get this done. With that being said, if ever given the opportunity to participate in one of these types of simulators it would benefit anyone to do so. 

A more realistic solution, which has been discussed, is to hire police officers based off of race that is a similar ratio to that of the community they would serve. In communities that are populated mostly by minorities, it may be easier for them to trust the police if they are also made up mostly of minorities. One issue with this is that there are many more non-minority officers, according to the United States Department of Justice, in 2013 just 27 percent of law enforcement was made up of minorities (2). Due to this gap, it would be difficult to make the ratio of police to citizens equal in all places. The number of minority is, however, on the rise as more departments have been using this strategy in hopes of improving community relations. Officer Lt. Colonel, Melvin Russel, gave a TED talk where he spoke about other ways to improve the relationship between the police and the community. Russel describes the community as placing too much responsibility on the police and says that police forces focus too much on the protection aspect of their job, and not enough on the serving facet. The main point of Russell’s speech was to focus more on the people and less on the crime, “if we took care of the needs of the people… the crime would take care of itself” (Russell, 10:15). After Russell implemented his policies in Baltimore, it took only three years for the city to reach a 40-year low in crime. 

While fixing the relationship with the community is a vital step in the process of improvement, other changes to help limit the stress officer deal with are also important to look at. One of the major causes of stress is their lack of sleep, finding ways to make it easier for officers to be more attentive on the job could be a big step in decreasing the use of force. Decreasing the amount of overtime that police have is one way to help encourage rest, as well as giving officers the opportunity to take shorter shifts. Even with these solutions it would be impossible to make anyone get more sleep, there is no telling what the officers might do with their extra time. The biggest cause of anxiety for officers is the confrontations they are forced to make with civilians. Officers constantly have to anticipate a person’s next move and be ready to respond in the best way. It’s impossible to get rid of this stress as you can’t eliminate that part of the job. With that being said, if more civilians knew how to correctly act around officers to make them feel safe, it could make all confrontations with the law go much smoother and much safer. 

The use of force is an unfortunate aspect of policing that is used to ensure the safety of both the officers as well as the people around them. There are times where this use of force becomes unnecessary and excessive and in these instances the officers at fault should be held accountable. The frustration in the community, especially the African American community, is an understandable one, however, it is also misinformed. When looking at how force is used by police officers, we must look at through a broader scope than the one of race that we look through now. The men and women of US law enforcement face a tremendous amount of pressure every day and this is often overlooked. Those unfamiliar with the stress of policing must try to understand all situations involving force through a policeman’s eyes before making ill-informed judgements about the officer’s motives. Police officers are there to serve the community, and that is just what they try to do day in and day out. Occasionally the stress of the job can cloud their judgement and lead to uses of force that may not have been applied under perfect conditions. It is impossible to truly understand what it feels like and how you would react in a life or death situation until you’ve been in one. Many officers have never had that experience so when it happens for the first time, they are just as rattled and anxious as many civilians would be. When these unavoidable nerves are combined with the added stress of policing, it is difficult to predict what decision an officer will make under these conditions. Though often these situations are unavoidable, they are always sad and no one would complain if there were to be a decrease in the number of instances. The poor community relations and some other causes of stress such as long shifts and overtime are things that can be decreased to help lower the rate of violence in policing. 
