BUFFALO, NY — Female police officers suffer more from the stress of their jobs than their male counterparts, though male officers aren't getting off easy, according to research led by the University at Buffalo.
One out of every four female officers assigned to a shift has thought about suicide, according to a study led by UB research associate professor John M. Violanti. Women also report greater instances of post traumatic stress disorder and symptoms of depression, a recent study has found.
At the same time, male officers report suicidal thoughts at nearly the same rate as female officers and, like women, show more symptoms of depression than is seen in the general population.
The work is part of an ongoing study into the health effects of stress on police officers, something Violanti has been looking at for more than a decade.
His experience as a state trooper gives Violanti an insight into the heads of officers and the mental and physical hardships of the job.
"Sometimes it's more dangerous than being shot at," Violanti said, "because stress can kill you, too."
Researchers are in the fourth year of a five-year study looking at how stress relates to disease.
So far, more than 430 Buffalo police officers have participated.
Violanti, who works in the department of social and preventive medicine in the School of Public Health and Health Professions, said he hopes to have studied 500 officers by the time the project wraps up in November of next year.
Researchers get their information from officers who have answered questionnaires and have been subject to clinical tests, including blood samples, echocardiograms and sleep monitoring.
The work has been funded by a $1.75 million grant from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
Also among the study's findings:
For every 10-year period over age 40, police officers are at a higher risk for coronary disease than the general population.
Seventy-two percent of female officers, and 43 percent of male officers, had higher-than-recommended cholesterol levels.
Another finding in Violanti's research: The average Buffalo police officer dies at age 66.
Some of Violanti's earlier work focused on suicide rates among police officers. His work in the mid-1990s found Buffalo police officers were 8.6 times more likely to die from suicide than at the hands of another person.
Buffalo police officers also showed more than three times the risk of suicide when compared with other city workers.
"Psychological survival is sometimes more difficult on policing than survival on the street," Violanti said.
The research also found the effects of stress differed, not only based on gender, but also on the shift an officer worked.
Men who worked afternoon and night shifts reported more suicidal thoughts, while the highest amount of suicidal thoughts among women were reported by those working the day shift.
Kathleen Pierino, an associate professor of criminal justice at Hilbert College who has previously done research with Violanti, believes female officers on day shift generally undergo more stress because of being away from family responsibilities.
"During the night, they're not really missing anything," said Pierino, a former state trooper and State Police investigator.
Both Violanti and Pierino also said they believe female officers generally face greater negative health effects due to stress at work because women are still in the great minority in the ranks of police officers.
Female officers typically don't have the level of bonding with other women as male officers do with other men on the force, Pierino said.
One benefit for the officers who participated in the study was that several were alerted for the first time to serious health issues, said Buffalo police Capt. Patrick G. Mann Jr., who has helped involve officers with Violanti's work.
Buffalo Police Commissioner H. McCarthy Gipson said he can personally speak to the stress police officers encounter.
The top cop, who has high blood pressure, high cholesterol and adult-onset diabetes, said he had trouble for years dealing with a traumatic incident in which he powerlessly watched another person die.
He also said he could recall off the top of his head four or five members of his Police Academy class who committed suicide.
Gipson noted the department does offer counseling and other services through the city's Employee Assistance Program. Some in the department don't like the program, Gipson said, for reasons including personality conflicts and a fear about information getting leaked.
Gipson said he is working with First Deputy Commissioner Byron C. Lockwood on a new protocol for what help officers receive following a traumatic incident.
"We don't provide enough," Gipson said.