Perception and experience of stress among police officers within Gaborone police service

Abstract

The purpose of this research project was to investigate the effect of stress among police officers working at eight randomly selected stations in Gaborone. A questionnaire and oral interviews were used to gather the required information and a statistical analysis was presented in graphs and tables to illustrate the findings. The research findings showed that the main causes of stress among police officers in Botswana was the fact that their work requires them to do too many different tasks at the same time and that their responsibilities are ever increasing. The police officers also work under strict deadlines. The findings show that stress among police officers was found to be work-related. Effects o f stress were also investigated in this research, and it shows that some of the effects of stress include frustration, helplessness, and tension at work, aggressive behavior, short-temperedness and withdrawal. Despite these problems of stress at the workplace, the research findings showed that there is little or no support for affected officers from their superiors or from the communities which they are serving. The research project came out with possible recommendations for further considerations by other research.