“Your police officer today is not your police officer of 20, 30, 40 years ago,” said Sprott business professor Linda Duxbury.
Earlier this year, Duxbury and Christopher Higgins of Western University published a report on their study on the work-life conflict faced by Canadian police officers.
The study surveyed 4,500 police officers at 25 Canadian police organizations from every province and territory except Quebec.
The study found that rather than the “life and death” stresses of their careers, most officers surveyed identified their main stress as a lack of control over their work environment and a culture that prioritizes work above all else.
These concerns stem from expectations of officers that are outdated and unrealistic.
Officers often feel pressured to perform tasks outside their mandate and work beyond their paid hours, according to the report.
“If you don’t volunteer, you’re limiting your career. You’re not going to get ahead,” Duxbury said.
These stresses can create conflict in an officer’s work-life balance, according to the report.
About 46 per cent of officers surveyed said they feel that in the culture of their organization, work is given priority over family. About 40 per cent of officers surveyed feel that their workplace values strict separation between work life and family life.
The culture of work over family and the expectation to volunteer to work extra hours ignore the realities of a contemporary police officer’s life.
“The cop of 30, 40 years ago . . . was a white male who had a wife at home . . . who did everything. Now, look at your data. Your police officer is married to a partner who has the same level of job as them, makes pretty close to the same income as them,” Duxbury said.
Prioritizing work over family life hinders police organizations as well as individual officers.
“What we know is organizations become incredibly successful . . . managing in a certain set of environmental conditions and everything is wonderful until the external environment shifts. Well that environment has shifted dramatically for cops,” Duxbury said.
As a solution, Duxbury suggested that police organizations change to reflect their changing workforce.
“Police organizations now have to shift within if they want to get, keep, retain and engage good police officers. And, trust me, the community wants good police officers,” Duxbury said.
The Canadian Association of Police Boards (CAPB) hopes to use the study’s findings to better workplaces, president Alok Mukherjee said.
“The world of policing in Canada – and elsewhere – is going through some critical rethinking . . . and this study will be of great assistance in thinking through these matters,” Mukherjee said.
The CAPB is in the process of raising awareness of these concerns and helping individual police boards make changes, Mukherjee said.
“Police officers’ physical, mental, emotional, and psychological wellness is essential so that they perform the functions required of them in the best way possible,” Mukherjee said.
This topic should be of concern to all citizens, not just members of police organizations, Duxbury emphasized.
Police officers “really care about the communities they serve in. Yet, in many ways, I don’t think we care about them enough,” Duxbury said.
In the near future, Duxbury plans to conduct follow-up research on the subject with more Carleton professors.
