The role of psychological surveillance in reducing harm and building resilience in police forensic investigators

Abstract

Police staff working in digital forensics, scenes of crime and accident investigators as forensic investigators are exposed to scenes and materials which are highly distressing. Two thousand twenty-eight forensic investigators completed a psychological surveillance survey measuring the proportion of investigators above the cut-off level of anxiety, depression, PTSD, burnout, and secondary trauma. The results showed that forensic investigators had higher symptoms than those found in police officers. Measures of workability and health beliefs were used to identify the most significant hazards and resilience factors for this group. The paper provides recommendations for interventions to reduce the levels of psychological distress.