Alarm bells for cops battling with mental anguish
(bjreview.com)
Updated: 2005-01-21 10:23

What started off as an ordinary evening ended in tragedy recently when two young policemen took their own lives in a display of desperation that sent shock waves through Wuchuan City in south China's Guangdong Province.

Long hours of work in the public eye places great stress on the daily lives of police.

The two police constables decided to grab something to eat after their night shift and headed for a small restaurant in the city.

While drinking and eating, they talked about things that were bothering them—the pressure of work, breaking up with girl friends because of the need to be on call, and the tension they lived with.

They poured their hearts out to each other and the more they talked, the more downhearted they became. Out of desperation, they made the decision to commit suicide by shooting each other at the same time.

A gun roared and one policeman dropped in a pool of blood. Shocked back to his senses, the other constable phoned for an ambulance. Riding in the back of the ambulance on the way to hospital, the second constable shot himself dead, slumping over his partners lifeless body.

Policemen in Yinchuan, Ningxia, put their best foot forward. Now psychological counseling will form part of their training.

Zhou Zhengyou, member of the World ESCH Organization and Director of the Nanjing City Psychological Consultation Center, said the police profession is prone to causing psychological problems.

As members of a government armed force, police officers enjoy special administrative and judicial power that is often admired by other members of society.

However they have to bear a heavy psychological burden caused by tense work circumstances and labor-intense duties.

Given this, police officers are a group of people who are easily succumb from psychological disease.

Zhang Zhensheng, Professor of the China People's Public Security University and in charge of the research on policemen's psychological issues launched by the Ministry of Public Security, said that psychological problems are the root cause of some policemen's abnormal behavior, and it has nothing to do with their political or professional status.

"Aside from assault moves, excessive psychological pressure can trigger anxiousness and melancholy and even suicide," said psychologist Zhou Zheng.

Doctor Guo Guangdong at the East China University of Politics and Law noted that police officers' psychological pressure stems from the characteristics of the profession: High risk and high tension.

They have to keep alert to everything around them. The slightest negligence may cause the escape of criminals or even death of their colleagues or themselves.

Consequently, they may be fired or punished according to relevant disciplines and law. Worse still, overtime and long years of shift work destroy their normal lifestyle.

In an interview, many police officers said they often relive instances of crime, which causes them untold anguish.

Furthermore, the insufficient police force constitutes another prominent problem. In many countries, police account for 30 percent of their total population, but in China this rate is no more than 10 percent.

"Every year a police officer has to do the work equivalent to the volume done by other public servants in two and a half years," said Zhang Xiaorong at the Public Security Bureau of Fuzhou, Fujian Province.

Extending working hours for police officers is commonplace and enjoying days off during holidays and at weekends is a luxury for them.

With the constant tension, they cannot eat and sleep regularly, which adversely affects their health.

In addition to maintaining public security by cracking down on criminal activities, police offer various social services, and a combination of these tasks leads to constant stress.

According to Zheng Zheng (assumed name), a criminal investigator at the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, he works 11 to 15 hours a day and enjoys a day off only once every three weeks.

This pace is obviously likely to trigger fatigue, weariness and anxiety.

A sample survey among 245 police officers in two cities in Fujian, including Xiamen, shows that those who have psychological problems exceeded 50 percent. Most of them are in a poor mental state.

A similar survey conducted by the Qingyang Public Security Bureau in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, indicates that 68 percent of the 400 male and female police officers involved in the survey suffer from psychological problems to varying degrees.

The survey stemmed from a letter sent by a policeman to the Qingyang Public Security Bureau. In the letter, he said, "I was an armyman and transferred to a police substation in 1986. Since then I have never gone to the movies, but have been experiencing 'movies' in real life. I spare no effort in my work, but still found it hard to cope with the various cases cropping up everyday. We have to face the increasingly complicated criminal acts and deal with criminals who are becoming younger and younger, while our health condition has kept declining."

The letter attracted the concern of relevant authorities. The Qingyang Public Security Bureau invited a specialist to give a lecture on psychological health and opened a psychological consulting hotline.

"From a psychological point of view, the police are a group of vulnerable people. Establishing a system aimed at maintaining a healthy mental state for police officers therefore is necessary," said Qian Bingyi, a psychological professor at Peking University.

Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu Province, takes the lead in this aspect. The Nanjing Public Security Bureau has launched psychological consulting training classes with students from grass-roots public security units.

The students are expected to become the staff engaged in a psychological consultancy, the first of its kind in China’s public security sector.

The Nanjing Public Security Bureau has also set up a psychological consulting center, and opened a psychological consulting website and a psychological consulting hotline. Roughly 100 police officers have visited the consulting center and more than 30,000 have logged onto the website.

Chengdu also opened such a hotline in November 2004 to service all police officers scattered in dozens of its counties.

"I often have nightmares, reliving the scene where I fired my gun at a criminal. Although I tried to rid my mind of this, I have not succeeded," said Cheng Yang, a 36-year-old policeman who shot dead a gangster who resisted arrest a month earlier.

In people's eyes, the 1.8-meter-tall Cheng is a tough guy. But he said only he knows how heavy the psychological pressure was after killing someone. "I have not dared to relate this experience to my family. I don't want to stress them out."

"After the case, I felt scared, but I couldn't tell others. I think a policeman should not feel fear, otherwise, they shouldn't be doing this job," he said.

Professor Zhang Zhensheng said the feeling is normal. When a policeman kills a criminal, it will affect him psychologically.

Cheng suffers constant insomnia after firing the gun, which has prompted him to visit a psychologist.

"I visited a psychologist twice, telling him about my problem. With his treatment, my stress gradually cleared up. It is like a bridge, we must walk across it. I feel much better now," he said.

It is reported that in Guangdong Province, police officers are required to be given psychological counseling within 48 hours of wounding or killing a criminal.

Cui Zhanjun, head of the psychological service center of Shenzhen City, Guangdong, said this practice is quite common in economically developed countries.

The counseling consists of face-to-face talks between a psychologist and the police officer in question.

Diagnoses are made according to his or her state of mind. Serious patients will be transferred to big hospitals.

The Guangdong Public Security Bureau recently stipulated that psychological assessments will be made when enrolling new police officers. Psychological training will also be included in the regular training of police.

The Ministry of Public Security is now providing psychological service to police officers nationwide in an effort to address the prevalent psychological problem among them.

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