mously; it was distributed through the police departments in-house mailboxes. A stamped envelope addressed to the researcher was given to each officer, so when they finished filling it out, it could be mailed directly to the researchers. The results were based on the responses of seventy-nine officers. All of the officers who responded were male, and the average age was thirty-five. There was no difference between the stress measures in any of the three police departments, even though the economic statuses were very different. Out of the three police departments the general economic level of the first city being studied was considered depressed. The second city was described as generally middle income. The third city was middle to upper income people. Organizational factors, for example, bad bosses and administrators, poor work schedules and fellow officers were the key stressors in police work, as opposed to the dangerousness of the work (Storch and Panzarella, 1996). Storch and Panzarella found that even though police work includes moments of high stress, they want it to be made aware that these moments are rare. For the most part officers work their regular shifts without any traumatic or dramatic events occurring.Stress in police work may be hard to measure. The perception of the officer may be an important factor that should be examined. Sigler et al. (1991) examined the perceptions of police officers compared to teachers in three communities. This was done in order to examine the differences in perceived occupational stress and for differences in the patterns of perceived job stress, perceived non-job stress, and both perceived job and life stressors. There are a number of situations in police work that produce stress on the officers. Many police officers throughout their careers do not come into contact with any great deal of danger, but it is something they have to anticipate every time they answer a call. A major...
