Police job strain during routine activities and a major event

Background: Special police forces are exposed to periods of intense work stress in ensuring public order. Aims: To explore the relationship between the work context (routine work or special event) of special force policemen and psychological measures of job strain (demand/control) and effort/reward balance. Methods: All policemen assigned to the G8 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, in July 2009 were invited to complete a questionnaire whilst engaged in routine work in January 2009 (Time A) and in June 2009 (Time B) whilst preparing for the special event. Results: Participation rate in the questionnaire study was 292/294 (99.3%) members of the special police force. Measures of job strain (-0.39, p<0.001) and effort-reward imbalance (-0.37, p<0.001) decreased significantly from time A to time B. On average, demand decreased from 14.2+1.9 to 12.6+2.7 (p<.001), control increased from 11.8+2.5 to 14.4+3.4 (p<.001), and social support increased from 17.8+2.9 to 19.0+3.1 (p<.001), At the same time, effort decreased from 17.4+3.2 to 11.8+3.8 (p<.001), reward grew from 37.6+5.5 to 45.5+7.4(p<.001), and overcommitment dropped from 7.1+2.1 to 6.6+1.7 (p<.001). Conclusion: In special police forces routine work may be significantly more stressful than a single critical event.