Traumatic Experiences of New Recruits and Serving Police

Many police departments face the problem of recruiting and retaining sufficient numbers and much research has been directed towards explanations for low retention of staff (Violanti, 1996 a). This research has often focussed on the negative aspects of policing, for example, traumatic stressors (Violanti & Aron, 1995), organisational stressors (Anson & Bloom, 1988), and individual factors such as personality and coping (Hart, Wearing & Headley, 1995). These studies suggest that organisational rather than specific job stressors are more important in determining psychological health and well-being. In contrast to this suggestion are findings that many police experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and these symptoms are unlikely to originate solely from organisational stressors (Violanti, 1996 a). Furthermore, the residual effects of traumatic stress may be present during retirement when the effects of organisational stressors are minimal (Violanti, 1996 b).

A New Zealand study of 527 police officers (Stephens, Long & Miller, 1996) showed that the number of different traumatic events, experienced either on or off duty, was correlated with PTSD scores and that chronic experience of similar events predicted higher levels of PTSD. Other research has shown that prior traumatisation increases vulnerability and the risk of developing PTSD after similar (Follette, Polusny, Bechtle & Naugle, 1996; Violanti, 1996 b), or dissimilar (Goenjian et al., 1994; Kessler et al., 1995; Norris, 1992), or successive traumatic events (Follette, Polusny, Bechtle & Naugle, 1996; Vrana & Lauterbach, 1994). Also, where PTSD symptoms are delayed or in remission, psychiatric symptomatology may be reactivated by similar traumatic events (Long, Chamberlain & Vincent, 1994).

In addition to psychological effects following multiple trauma in adulthood, there are indications that stressful events that occur early in life, such as poverty, parental separation, or sexual and physical abuse may contribute to PTSD symptoms in adulthood (e.g. Davidson, Hughes, Blazer & George, 1991; Follette, Polusny, Bechtle & Naugle, 1996; Stallard & Law, 1993).

Investigations of exposure to traumatic events in community samples are usually cross-generational studies of adults. In a few studies (Breslau, Davis, Andreski & Peterson, 1991; Giaconia et al., 1995) there are limited reports of the nature of trauma experienced by young adults prior to undertaking employment. For this reason the present study was conducted to determine the prevalence levels of traumatic experience in police recruits as they are at risk for chronic exposure to future traumatic events. It is suggested that within those occupations where exposure to trauma is high, previous trauma is an additional risk factor which may adversely impact on job performance and ultimately on resignation intention.

Method

Sample and Procedure
A convenience sample of 364 sworn police officers, 187 recruits and 177 field staff, completed the questionnaire. Five field staff declined to participate and 23 questionnaires were incomplete.

Variable	Recruits		Field Staff
Variable	N	Percentage	N	Percentage
Age	186		176
20 - 25	96	51.3	9	5.1
26 - 30	53	28.3	42	23.7
31 - 35	23	12.3	52	29.4
36 - 45	14	7.5	60	33.9
46 -	00	0.0	13	7.3
Gender	187		177
Male	134	71.7	157	88.7
Female	53	28.3	20	11.3
Length of Service	187		177
>1 Year	187	100.0	1	.6
1 - 5	00	0.0	26	14.7
6 - 10	00	0.0	66	37.3
11 - 15	00	0.0	24	13.6
16 - 20	00	0.0	35	19.8
20 -	00	0.0	25	14.1

A summary of the demographic variables is shown in Table 1. There is a greater proportion of women than was in the New Zealand police (12.5%) at the time of the survey. This reflects the increasing number of women entering the police: 28% of the recruits and 11.3% of the field staff in the sample were women. The recruits were aged from 20 to 45 years, with the majority (96) in the 20-25 age group. The field officers were aged from 20 to over 46 years, and the majority was in the 26 to 45 age groups (154). One hundred and five officers in the total sample were less than 25 years and 13 were over 46. Length of service was evenly spread across the sample of serving officers and ranged from one to over 25 years: 85.8% of field officers in the sample had served between 1 and 20 years (83% in the NZ police) and 14.2% between 21 and over 45 years (17%).

Measures
The questionnaire comprised items requesting demographic information and ten items from the Traumatic Stress Schedule (Norris, 1990) : robbery, physical assault, sexual assault, tragic death of friend or family member, motor vehicle accident, military combat, loss through fire, natural disaster, hazard or danger, or other event. Each item reported information on the number of times the event had occurred (once or more than once) and when it occurred (lifetime frequency and past year frequency).

Results

The percentage of the sample who reported any number of traumatic events was 79.4%. Percentages of groups who reported any number of events were: 70.6% of recruits (73.9% of male recruits and 62.3% of female recruits);and 88.7% of field staff.

Event	Total %	Field Staff (177)			Recruits (187)
Event	Total %	LT	PY	>1	LT	PY	>1
Robbery	7.9	7.9	1.1	3.4	8.0	1.1	2.7
Assault	46.1	60.5	12.7	42.4	32.6	3.7	16.0
Sexual Assault	4.1	2.3	0.6	0.6	5.9	0.00	3.2
Tragic Death	28.5	31.0	5.1	7.3	26.3	5.9	7.0
Fire	9.3	12.4	0.6	1.1	6.4	1.1	0.0
Disaster	10.2	16.4	1.7	2.8	4.3	0.0	1.6
Hazard	9.9	14.1	1.7	2.8	5.8	0.0	2.1
Military Combat	0.3	0.6	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Motor Accident	31.8	40.1	1.7	9.6	24.1	4.3	7.0
Other Event	29.2	41.2	10.2	17.5	17.6	4.8	5.3

NOTE: Total percent adds to more than 100% because multiple events were often reported.

Table 2 shows the percentage of frequencies of each traumatic event reported by recruits and field staff. The field staff generally report higher lifetime incidence of traumatic events, but the recruits also report high percentages for some events. Field staff report significantly more lifetime frequencies of: Assault, X² (1) 28.34, p<.001; Natural Disaster, X² (1) 14.59, p<.001; Hazard, X² (1) 6.93, p<.01; Motor Vehicle Accident, X² (1) 10.78, p<.01; and Other Events, X² (1) 24.53, p<.001. The significant differences for events experienced in the past year only, were for Motor Vehicle Accidents, X² (1) 6.02, p<.05. In this case the recruits reported more events than the field staff.

Event	Total %	Females (53)			Males (134)
Event	Total %	LT	PY	>1	LT	PY	>1
Robbery	8.0	3.8	0.0	1.9	9.7	1.5	3.0
Assault	32.6	18.9	0.0	11.3	38.0	5.2	17.9
Sexual Assault	5.9	20.8	0.0	11.3	0.0	0.0	0.0
Tragic Death	26.3	28.3	9.4	13.2	25.4	4.5	4.5
Fire	6.4	7.5	3.8	0.0	6.0	0.0	0.0
Disaster	4.3	5.6	0.0	1.9	3.7	0.0	1.5
Hazard	5.8	11.3	0.0	3.8	3.7	0.0	1.5
Motor Accident	24.1	15.0	1.9	7.5	27.6	5.2	6.7
Other Event	17.4	11.3	5.7	3.8	20.2	4.5	6.0

NOTE: Total percent adds to more than 100% because multiple events were often reported.

Table 3 shows the differences in percentage frequencies for each traumatic event for male recruits and female recruits. The significant differences were, more assaults reported by males, X² (1) 6.36, p<.05 and more sexual assaults by females (none reported by males).

Discussion

There is substantial data gathered in clinical settings from people at risk of psychological disorders following exposure to a range of major traumas. The aim of much of this research has been to obtain base rates of exposure to trauma and then to study variations in subsequent psychiatric disorders (Kessler et al., 1995). There is limited information available on the nature and range of traumatic events experienced by younger members of the community who are not seeking or undergoing clinical intervention and there is even less reported on trauma experienced within specific occupational groups (military personnel excepted). For this reason the present study is important because it reports levels of trauma which exist in police recruits prior to frontline duty.

In the present study, the percentage of recruits who reported any number of events (70.6%) was at the high end of the ranges reported from other samples of younger adults. In these studies, the prevalence levels for exposure to any traumatic event was between 39% and 82% (39%, Breslau, et al., 1991; 43%, Giaconia, et al., 1995; 56%, Kessler et al., 1995; 69%, Norris, 1992; 82%, Vrana & Lauterbach, 1994). Another New Zealand community study has shown a high percentage (64%) of younger people exposed to a traumatic event (Long, MacDonald & Flett, 1996) suggesting that younger New Zealanders are exposed to higher levels of trauma than those in other countries.

The present results also show the percentage of field staff who reported one or more events (88.7%) to be similar to those reported from a previous study of front line New Zealand police officers (Stephens, Long & Miller, 1996). In the latter study, 97.7% reported the experience of at least one event but only 40.8% of these officers reported having experienced traumatic events before joining the police. These results may be explained by long serving officers accumulating more incidents of on-the-job traumas. The reason that they reported lower levels of pre-service trauma may be because those who have experienced higher pre-service traumas have already left the service.

In considering the differences between recruits and front line staff there are several points worth noting. First, although the field staff generally report higher lifetime incidence of traumatic events, the recruits (who are younger and have not been exposed to police duties) also report similarly high percentages for five types of incident . Second, of the specific types of event that were significantly different for recruits and field staff, assaults were higher for field staff but recruits also reported very high percentages of assaults (32.6%). This percentage may be compared with those reported from other surveys, 12.3 to 19.1% (Long et al., 1996; Norris, 1992). The higher reporting of `other events' for field officers was mainly related to police work such as, dealing with bodies, armed offenders, crowd control, and other specific police duties.

The differences between male and female recruits are also noteworthy. Men were more likely to have been assaulted and women were more likely to have suffered sexual assault. The reporting by female recruits of sexual assault was also particularly high (20.8%) when compared to Norris (1992), 7.3%, or Long et al., (1996) 10% for childhood sexual abuse and 7% for adult sexual assault.

The results of our study have important implications for the health of people entering professions where they may be exposed to traumatic experiences. If they begin work with unresolved trauma, they may have poorer performance and be among the first to seek early retirement. Furthermore, current interventions for managing trauma at the workplace, such as psychological debriefing following a critical incident, do not function retrospectively.

Finally, the evidence does warrant further longitudinal investigation which would take into account the level of traumatic experience and its effects on the subsequent career of young police officers. Some questions that these data raise are: what are other reasons for the discrepancies in reporting of early traumatic experiences by new recruits and working police officers; does police work attract a particular type of young recruit; and how will young officers react to added traumatic stress? These are questions worthy of further investigation in police or other emergency personnel.

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