COUNSELING METHODS

Effective Police Counseling Methods

Abstract

Administrative policies and procedures, which officers rarely participate in formulating, can add to stress. One-officer patrol cars create anxiety and a reduced sense of safety. Internal investigation practices create the feeling of being watched and not trusted, even during off-duty hours. Officers sometimes feel they have fewer rights than the criminals they apprehend. Lack of rewards for good job performance, insufficient training, and excessive paperwork can also contribute to police stress. Stress contributes not only to the physical disorders previously mentioned, but also to emotional problems. Some research suggests that police officers commit suicide at a higher rate than other groups. Most investigators report unusually high rates of divorce among police. Although some maintain that researchers have exaggerated the divorce rate among police, interview surveys demonstrate that police stress reduces the quality of family life. A majority of officers interviewed reported that police work inhibits nonpolice friendships, interferes with scheduling family social events, and generates a negative public image. Furthermore, they take job pressures home, and spouses worry about officers' safety. Systematic studies do not confirm the widely held belief that police suffer from unusually high rates of alcoholism, although indirect research has established a relationship between high job stress and excessive drinking. Finally, officers interviewed cited guilt, anxiety, fear, nightmares, and insomnia following involvement in shooting incidents

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Effective Police Counseling Methods1

Introduction1

Background1

Discussion2

Counseling Methods and Techniques3

Reduction of Crime and Role of police5

What is it?5

Intervention6

Operational work6

Education6

Strategic planning7

The study7

Why it does today?7

Summary of Related Study9

Stats and Data11

Model for the research12

Crime rates and Stress level of Police13

Conclusion16

Scope for future research17

References19

Effective Police Counseling Methods

Introduction

The New York Police Department's policy of “stop, question, and frisk” has been criticized during the last decade as unfairly targeting innocent persons, racially biased, and ineffective in reducing crime. In this paper we focus on the issue of crime reduction. To our knowledge, only a single study has examined the impact of New York's stop, question, and frisk (hereafter SQF) policy on crime rates.

We describe the growth of SQF in New York City over the past decade, review the methods and results of study, discuss the research challenges associated with evaluating the effects of SQF on crime rates, and present the data, methods, and findings of the current study. In contrast with the prior research, we find few significant effects of SQF on robbery and burglary rates in New York during the period 2003 to 2010. The differing results may be due to corresponding differences in the methods and data used in the two studies. We conclude by cautioning against relying on the results of just two empirical investigations for policy evaluation given the significant analytical challenges to estimating the effects of SQF and similar enforcement policies on crime and the rights and liberties of citizens (Arellano, 1991).

Background

The New York Police Department's SQF policy dates to at least the turn of the current century, but like other police departments the NYPD has been conducting “Terry Stops” for decades. After the Supreme Court's decision in Terry ...