An Effective Analysis on Burnout and Anger among Police Personnel

Most of the policemen remain over-worked and have to stay away from their families and children for long periods of times. It often leads to family problems and disputes. Domestic tension may translate into rude behaviour on duty including, but not limited to fellow officers and general public. It has also been seen that officers treat their subordinates in a shabby and insulting manner. There are officers who habitually use profane or insulting language towards their subordinates. Anger has been found to have a negative impact on emotional as well as physical well-being. Friedman (1992); Hallet, (1996) observed that anger and hostility predisposes people to serious health problems. Mearns and Mauch (1998) also observed that those police officers who reported more anger also reported more distress.

Society has been changing so fast but not the police. Their heightened and emotionally charged behaviour is not desirable in today's society. The pathological problems among police personnel are on the rise. These must be tackled and not dismissed lightly. There are hundreds of exercises and techniques to manage stress, burnout and anger that has been experienced by police personnel. But not many efforts have been made to enable the police personnel to deal with these problems. The review of the literature indicates that even the Indian studies on various dimensions of stress among police personnel, are too few and studies on burnout and anger of this group are totally lacking. Therefore a large research gap exists. More particularly in Himachal Pradesh, no information is available even on the level and content of stress, burnout and anger among police personnel. In the view of this, a paucity {the presence of something only in small or insufficient quantities or amounts; scarcity} of such endeavours in Himachal Pradesh has provided the research base for present effort. The present study, is not only an endeavour to assess, understand and examine the stress, burnout, negative mood regulation and anger related behaviour of police personnel, but through this research, an attempt has also been made to enhance the coping skills of the police personnel to deal with

Efforts have also been made to see the difference among various ranks of police personnel on these variables. As Mathur (1999), pointed out that police personnel of the lower ranks (Assistant sub inspectors, head constables and constables) experienced more stress than those of higher ranks in the police force. This data has served as a secondary finding of the present study. In an attempt to provide a practical and positive approach for helping police personnel to overcome their stress, burnout and anger and to enhance their coping resources, volunteers were invited to participate in the workshops pertaining to the management of all the above mentioned aspects. Keeping in view the coping skills / stress management techniques used by the various specialists in the field, a multidimensional self regulatory program was prepared to take care of different behaviour, physical and emotional problems experienced by the police personnel. In order to assess the efficacy of these multidimensional interventions, only relaxation intervention was also made part of this study. This one group has been exposed to multidimensional intervention and another has been exposed to only physical relaxation training, which served as a control group of the study.

Prevention and Detection of Crime: One of the most important duties of the police is the prevention of crime and maintenance of law and order. The great mass of crime consists of offences against property. Here the police can afford to give a large measure of protection, either directly by regular and efficient patrolling or by the exercise of a proper surveillance over bad characters, repeat offenders and criminals. To obtain knowledge of the persons personal. The successful detection of crime and prosecution of offenders are also of the greatest importance. Standards by which Officers will be judged: An officer will be judged not merely by his success in the investigation and prosecution of offences but by his display of method and management of subordinates, and above all, by his knowledge and control of the local duties assigned to him. Reporting Crime: It is the duty of every officer of the police force to see that all cognizable crimes are reported and registered and that village Chaukidars {watchmen} as well as to encourage the public to give full & complete information in this respect. An officer may exercise a wide discretion about refusing investigation in trivial {of little value or importance} cases, if he/she finds no time to investigate them. This rise in the percentage of such refusals need not be feared in itself. On no account should offences or even attempts to commit them be concealed or minimization encouraged. Behaviours towards Public: No police force can perform its duties with success unless it wins the respect and good feeling and exercises forbearance, civility and courtesy toward all classes of the society. Firmness in the execution of duty is essential but not rudeness, harshness and brutality. All police officers shall not only observe a courteous and conciliatory demeanour themselves, but on all occasions endeavour to inculcate in their subordinates the necessity of combining tact with firmness and performing their duties in a manner which shall be as little distasteful as possible to the promotion, if he/she habitually disregards the above instructions. Impartiality: All ranks shall observe strict impartiality in the discharge of their duties, and particularly in their dealings with different political pressure groups. No police officer shall canvass, use his influence in connection with, take part in any election to a legislative body or a local authority. If he/she exercises any right to vote, he shall do, so, without giving any indication of the manner in which he proposes to vote or has voted. Every officer specially an officer or above the rank of a Deputy Superintendent shall be easily accessible both at headquarters and when on tour, to the members of the public and shall encourage to communicate their opinions to him freely. All serving officers shall keep in touch with retired police officers living in their

cooperation whenever their knowledge or experience is likely to prove useful. An index of such retired officers shall be maintained in the office of the Superintendent of Police. Miscellaneous Duties: The police officials shall not be employed on miscellaneous duties that take up time, which might be more usefully devoted to the detection and repression of crime (e.g., the guarding of tanks within municipal areas to prevent them from being polluted, or the publication of miscellaneous notices by beat of drum). The number of police officers and policemen deputed to maintain order in cinemas, circuses and other places of entertainment should not be excessive and shall be regulated from time to time by distinct orders. These groups need to have their own private security for circuses, cinemas or places of entertainment businesses. Assistance to Travellers and Others: Every police officer should show civility to travellers and advise them about where they can get transport, porters or provisions and inform them of the local, rates. It is the duty of the police to render all possible assistance to any person found in any public place incapable through illness or otherwise of taking care of him as it is done in the USA, UK, Canada or other European countries. If such persons appear to be seriously ill and have none to look after them, they should be taken to the medical facility or to the hospital and also shall take charge of them. The District Magistrate shall pay the cost of the journey, if any. Police officers of all grades should provide the International (Motor) Association certificates to the owners of motorcars, who arrive to their States and such services may be at their disposal. Knowledge of Vernacular: All officers should acquire a thorough knowledge of the main dialects and language of the areas in which they are stationed {because India has 329 languages recognized and each language has multiple dialects, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Farsi, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and many more}. The role of the police flows from its concept. Its traditional role to prevent and detect crime and to maintain law and order is of universal application, but what distinguishes the police of a free and open society from that of a totalitarian society is the manner in which it functions. In a free and open society, police is the vehicle of expression of the Government‘s concern for the rehabilitation of the malcontents and their victims and for the maintenance of peace with the willing co-operation of the people. In a totalitarian society, the police function as a force representing the strong arm have been perceived in a different way. Indian police is an Organized Institute, which has specific disciplinary rules, systematic training and code of conduct, and functions under the direct control of state government, which was established by the queen's regime, while India is a free country now, but still India has common law and the same ranks as we have in the United Kingdom, police department is controlled by each state in its territory and administered accordingly.

The dictionary of sociology defines the term stress as ―any unpleasant and disturbing emotional experiences due to frustration‖. Stress is a psychological phenomenon, which affects the human mind and behaviour. There are various causes of human stress. As far as the police personnel are concerned they have stress within their own organization as well as from the community. Shailendra Singh described sources of organizational stress as simply being in the organization - the threat to an individual‘s freedom, autonomy and identity that this employment possesses, lack of participation in the decision-making process, lack of effective communication, and restriction on behaviour and other rigid rules and regulations may be a cause of high stress‖.

The treatment related changes on job-stress scores have been analyzed by repeated measures of analysis of variance (RPMANOVA) three factors mixed design with repeated measures over trials. All the post-hoc comparisons have been made by Newman Keul's Multiple Range Test (see Burning & Kintz, 1987). The summary of RPMANOVA is reported in Table.

the characteristics of the professional elite as follows: • Sustained training to acquire a certain minimum level of skills for performing the professional role; • Functioning in an informal organizational setup and the complexity of the nature of their work; • Commitment to universalistic value particularly to those of rationality, objectivity and pragmatism; • Specificity of role; • Existence of legal procedure and legitimization for the performance of duties and evolution of their functions. The Police department consists of many hierarchies. Each hierarchy has its own power and role. It is interconnected within the system, and it is not independent. Peter L. Berger and Brigitte explained each bureaucrat from top to bottom means the all levels of police officials are responsible to a specific other bureaucrat, who supervises his/her work with more or less diligence.

THE POLICE has power to regulate peace including law and order in the community, society, city, state and even in our remote areas to protect our citizens, their lives and businesses including individuals' properties and to put a stop on crime. Since India follows democratic principles, the police force considers about peoples' welfare. The former Union Minister Mr. Charan Singh {Federal Secretary of State} was discussing the complex role of the police i.e., "the country emerged as a democratic sovereign republic with a written constitution aimed at securing to all of its citizens, social justice including economic and political, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, equality of status, opportunity and to promote amongst them all fraternity assuring the dignity of the individuals and the unity of the nation‖ {considered constitutional rights}. When the police is considered the guardian of welfare of the people, police force focuses their attention towards prevention of crime and the first priority given is to serve the people, who are in a critical situation. A National Police Commission was appointed to analyze the entire police system in the year 1977 and the Commission had submitted its report in the year 1979 and the final report was submitted in the year 1981. The report observed that the police have direct more or less exclusive responsibility in the task of investigating crime, to a limited role in regards to prevention. Crisis: Downsizing, restructuring and Privatizations. Oxford, U.K. Blackwells. Friedman, H.S. (1992). Hostility, coping and Health. Washington D.C. American Psychological Association. Haan, N. (1977). Coping and Defending, New York: Academic Press. Hagihara, A., Taruni, K., Miller, A. & Marimoto, K. (1997). Type-A and Type-B behaviour, work stressors, and social supports at work. Preventive medicine: An International Journal Devoted to Practice and Theory, Vol. 26 (4), pp. 486-494. Heiman, M.F. (1975). The Police suicide. Journal of Police Science and Administration, (3): PP. 264-273. Sep. Hill, E., Miller, B. Weiner, S., and Colihan, J. (1998). Influences of the Virtual Office on aspects of work and work / life balance. Personnel Psychology, 51, pp. 667-6F8 Houston (1994). Anger hostility and psychological reactivity. In A.W. Siegman and T.W. Smith (Eds.), anger. Hostility and the Heart Howard, J.H., Rechnitzer, R.A. & Cunningham, D.A. (1975). Coping with job tension-effective and ineffective methods, public personnel management, 4, pp. 317-326. Leiter, M. (1993). Burnout as a development Process: Consideration of models. In W. Schaufeli, C. Maslach, & T. Marek (Eds.) Professional burnout. Recent Development in Theory and Research [pp. 237-250). Washington, DC:L Taylor & Francis. Mathur, K.M. (1994). Indian Police: Role and Challenges, New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House.

Research Scholar, OPJS University, Churu, Rajasthan