Police Officers Feeling the Burn: An Examination of Individual and Agency Level Predictors of Burnout

• In Event: Research on Stress and Job Satisfaction among Police Officers

Abstract

Police officers face a difficult work environment, with pressures from the danger of the job, bureaucracy of the organization, and scrutiny from the media and general public. As such, officers are inclined to exhibit higher levels of chronic stress, or burnout, which is a condition that can affect workers’ health, motivation, and job performance, and speed staff turnover. Using individual-level survey data and agency-level data collected as part of the National Police Research Platform, this paper will examine patterns in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, two components of burnout, in officers representing almost 100 agencies throughout the United States, including sheriff’s and municipal departments. Both individual correlates, such as the quality of supervision and fairness of the organization, and agency-level correlates, such as community crime rates, will be explored. The implications of these findings for both practice and research will also be discussed.

Authors

• William McCarty, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Mariana Palacios, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Stacy Dewald, University of Illinois at Chicago