Origins of Police Officer Stress before and after 9/11

This article examines the origins of stress amongst police officers after the destruction of the World Trade Centers and compares those responses with a similar group of officers prior to this tragic event. The previous sample consisted of 415 officers and the current sample consists of 310 Boston officers. The survey used and the demographics of both samples were similar. Results show that the ‘before’ 9/11 group felt that harming or killing an innocent person was at the top of their critical incident list as compared with the ‘after’ 9/11 group who selected hate groups/terrorists. The ‘before’ group's most salient outcome led to the abuse of their own children or a lack of parental affection. The ‘after’ group's most salient outcome led to a reduction in self-respect owing, unexpectedly, to structural policy changes linked in part to FBI deception as opposed to job experiences or occupational risks. Recommendations were suggested to enhance police organisational strategies. More research should be conducted on the processes of police organisational change.