The Wellbeing of UK Police: A Study of Recorded Absences from Work of UK Police Employees Due to Psychological Illness and Stress Using Freedom of Information Act Data

Abstract

Policing is undoubtedly a dangerous occupation whereby officers are routinely exposed to dangerous and potentially traumatic events, such as attending road traffic collisions, informing people of the death of a loved one, and ensuring public safety at football matches. Frontline policing is of course not the only place whereby constant exposure to dangerous and distressing incidents can increase the risk of police employees developing emotional and psychological complaints that have serious effects on their ‘wellbeing’, with previous research identifying specific policing areas such as homicide investigation as likely to have negative effects on those doing the investigating. Although to date, research has focused on the wellbeing effects of ‘routine policing’, criminal investigation, and specific events, as yet little is known about the effect on UK police employees wellbeing of ‘doing the job’ in terms of the number of days recorded as absent due to psychological illness, trauma, and stress. This study seeks to redress this gap by analysing sickness absence data recorded for 20 UK Police services for the past 10 years, obtained under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. The data set represents some 57% of UK police personnel, and findings suggest that police employee absence due to psychological ill health, trauma, and stress had nearly doubled in the past 10 years to an absence rate of 8.82%. Furthermore, this study found that 39% of those who take a first leave of absence due to mental ill health go on to take further absences from work.

A price paid? A review of the research on the impact of investigating serious crime on the wellbeing of police staff

“…If one conducts a quick search of the police wellbeing literature to date, it will appear that most of the attention has been placed on the effects on the wellbeing of all police officers or police staff in relation to being 'a police officer or staff' per se (Cartwright and Roach, 2020). Although albeit unintentionally (and probably as a result of having to start research in this area somewhere) an impression that may by falsely drawn is that all police and police staff face the same potential trauma hazards.…”

“…Many police staff encounter traumatic events on a routine, daily basis. Sickness absence due to poor psychological health, in a UK policing context, is at an all-time high with reported absences seen to have almost doubled over the past 10 years (Cartwright and Roach, 2020). The research literature to date, relating to the psychological health and wellbeing of police, has so far overwhelmingly tended to focus on operational aspects of the role, such as the negative effects of 'patrolling' on those police that do it.…”

An Exploration of Well-being in Former Covert and Undercover Police Officers

“…Protecting the protectors has become an imperative part of the UK Government's agenda (Home Office 2018) and we must ensure that all protectors gain equal coverage and well-being support. In a recent paper by Cartwright and Roach (2020), it has been highlighted that in the past 10 years, psychological sick leave within UK police forces has almost doubled, with 8% of police employees taking sick leave due to psychological problems. Utilising a different approach, the University of Cambridge (Police Care UK, 2019) surveyed 16,857 serving police employees and revealed estimations of up to 20% of employees suffering from post-traumatic stress symptoms.…”

“…The media often portray the unsavoury aspects of policing, creating a stereotype that policing is unsafe and inherently dangerous (Hart et al 1994), whilst often ignoring the mundanities. The literature in this area of policing research is indeed growing, but it is argued that the effects of doing policing on well-being should not be viewed as homogeneous (Cartwright and Roach 2020). As a result, current literature is unable to identify which operational aspects of policing work are the most susceptible to causing trauma.…”

“…For example, crime scene investigators are exposed to deceased bodies, unpleasant smells, grieving relatives and many other traumatic stressors routinely. Investigators working on child abuse investigations are often exposed to traumatic imagery of children being abused, and general investigators are exposed to a range of other stressors that detrimentally affect well-being (Cartwright and Roach 2020). As such, methods for responding to and supporting these colleagues in order to minimise the detrimental impact of their role are likely to be very different and this will be no different to trauma caused by covert operations.…”