The Dangers of Police Work Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Dangers of Police Work - Research Paper Example Most frequently, they respond to ‘unknown disturbances or problems’ whereby a person may be asking for help but the police officer does not actually know what he/she is to expect or he/she is not able to gather more information regarding the situation (Dempsey & Forst, 2007). The duties of police officers involve operating in various kinds of circumstances, with much of their work being outdoors walking the beats assigned to them or riding in patrol cars. Their work is deemed extraordinarily dangerous – while carrying out their duties, some police officers are wounded or even killed. Police work can entail horrid tasks, which expose them to dangerous, sordid or depressing situations. They may be required to deal with all kinds of people in diverse situations. These dangers are usually traumatic for the police officers as well as their family members. Generally, police work holds the potential for the unpredicted and the unknown, and most individuals who take on this job possess a strong commitment and passion for it. Police work may involve being on duty 24 hours a day – even when not on call, the law requires a police officer to respond to criminal activity or to emergencies, during which no consideration is made for time of day or night o r even weather conditions (Ferguson, 2007). Gaines and Miller (2007) explain that the dangers of police work are both physical and mental/psychological. They indicate that according to the United States’ Justice Department policing is one of the most dangerous jobs in the US with 261 of every 1000 officers’ targets of non-fatal violence annually. Between the year 2003 and 2004, over three hundred police officers were murdered in the line of duty. They further assert that police work, in addition to physical dangers, involves considerable mental stress and pressure. The United States’ Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that together with being a surgeon, firefighting, driving a taxi,