Ergo-policing. Improving Safety and Ergonomic Requirements of Human Resources Involved in Police Duties

Abstract

An occupational health and safety management standard must be designed to ensure a planned and coordinated approach to managing health and safety risks in the workplace. It should include procedures for preventing injuries and illness, and for managing the quick return to work of injured police employees. In law enforcement organisations, ergonomic aspects and safety issues must be tackled with three priorities that are essential for that occupation: officer safety, public safety and avoidance of litigation. Therefore, police officers provide their own safety, protect the citizens and try to make sure that their actions do not create litigation against themselves or their organisation. The equipment and workstations designed for the law enforcement personnel to support these priorities has to be effective, safe and reliable.After implementing an effective ergonomic standard, the Romanian Police should significantly reduce work related injury rates, along with their severity and associated costs. While we do not know exactly how many police organisations offer occupational health and safety programs or what programs they offer, we do know that, in general, the law enforcement field could significantly benefit from adopting a comprehensive health and safety standard.This paper suggests the implementation of a comprehensive health and safety design standard in police organisations in order to manage properly some ergonomic stressors in police activity and some possible solutions have been proposed. A questionnaire survey was performed on a population of 50 police officers to assess levels of strain associated with a series of potential home and work related stressors. Participants were split into two scoring groups, operative and non-operative officers, on the basis of a general ergonomic checklist in order to identify those stressors.