Occupational stress in police forces: Causes and coping stratigies

Police work is often regarded as an enormously stressful and the personnel involved in field duties often reported variety of psychological, behavioural and health related problems. The present study is based on observational and interview method of data collection. The sample studied was taken from the police forces based in Jammu and Kashmir, India. The study comes out with the causes and the coping strategies of stress in police forces. Tough working conditions, lack of basic amenities, long working hours, physical separation from the family, hostile attitude of public, pressure of performance have been considered as the reasons of stress. The stress is going to have far reaching consequences on the personal as well as organisational efficiency. The police forces should set up stress management cells and senior officers should be given proper stress management training so that they become aware of the stress and the coping strategies.