When people think about stress, they usually consider it as negative. However, stress can be both positive and negative. Positive stress is referred to as eustress, while negative stress is called distress. Stress is derived from the change which can be either positive or negative. Change is an inevitable aspect of life; therefore, people cannot avoid stress.
Police works create a lot of stress among officers because of job characteristics. Police works require both physical and emotional strains. These strains lead to stress of officers. Danger, frustration, excessive paperwork, the daily demands of the job, and a lack of understanding from family members, friends, and the public are major causes of stress among police officers. The American Institute of Stress in New York ranks police job among the top ten stress-producing jobs in the United States.
In this study, the author proposes the ways of stress management among police officers based on the medical model and the organizational health model. In the medical model, the author introduces the elimination, coping, and counseling as a way of dealing stress as an individual level. In the organizational health model, the author proposes following recommendations from the administrative point of view: 1) rationalization of personnel management system, 2) improvement of the welfare, 3) democratic management of police organization, 4) maintenance of a good partnership with citizens, and 5) development of stress management program for police family members.