Psychosocial risks in the police: harassment

 

The police profession exposes its personnel to particular risks, which can have an impact on their mental, physical and social health. Confronted with traumatic situations and violence, police officers experience intense events. The number of attacks against them is increasing. The repetition of traumas or the prolonged exposure to violence weakens the individual and contributes to an increase in the risk of suicide. The wear and tear on police officers and gendarmes is reflected in particular in the need to consult psychologists, in the precariousness of family situations (increase in separations within couples, geographical celibacy ten times higher than in the general population) and sometimes in absenteeism

The police in France ensure the safety of the population on a daily basis. They protect us and maintain public order. Today the police are harassed on a daily basis, both morally and sexually. Insults, violence, inappropriate words, inappropriate gestures... All these actions have devastating consequences for the police. Some police officers commit suicide because they are harassed on a daily basis. We are going to discover the harassment of some police officers. Why is there so much harassment of the police in French society?

Today, police officers are increasingly harassed. Attacks on the national police have more than doubled in twenty years, with more than 85 incidents of "violence against persons in positions of public authority" recorded every day for the national police alone, and it is likely that the figures are still underestimated. Although they are present to defend us, more and more acts of violence and harassment are being recorded. This harassment is first of all moral. Indeed, moral harassment is characterized by the repetition of hostile actions whose purpose or consequence is a deterioration of working conditions likely to affect the dignity, health and professional future of the person.

This harassment takes the form first of all of repeated insults. In the neighbourhoods, this is very frequent. Young people often provoke and attack police officers. When police officers are on patrol in sensitive neighbourhoods, they are never welcome. Threats to police officers on the walls, verbal provocations towards police officers, mockery. The first is mostly expressed from a distance, when a patrol passes by or, more directly, when an arrest goes wrong. Some of these acts sometimes seem to have no consequences. But their repetition on a daily basis can seriously affect police officers and have significant repercussions on their physical and psychological health. These insults can go as far as death threats. In some cases, the harassment goes beyond mere verbal abuse.

Indeed, harassment can also involve violence. These are clearly and consciously acts of a higher level of seriousness. Police officers are often subjected to projectiles, often explained by the discontent of young people in the neighbourhood, for example. This violence is nowadays omnipresent. In fact, there is a disproportionate and uncontrollable hatred of the police. These hostilities can cause a feeling of fear and insecurity among the police. This violence also leads some police officers to resign from their duties.

Police assault

The police will always be there, today as yesterday and even more so tomorrow. They will continue to hunt down criminals to the detriment of the inhabitants who ask for nothing more than to be able to live in peace and security. Action must therefore be taken to avoid this type of action as much as possible.

Sexual harassment is a complex concept to define because it covers a multitude of comments and behaviours and can therefore take very different forms. It is also increasingly present in the police. In addition to harassment by citizens, sexual harassment between police officers exists. It is often hierarchical superiors who are accused of 'remarks' and 'jokes' with 'sexual connotations' and around their personal lives, as well as very serious advances. Unhealthy and misogynistic behaviour on the part of police officers who create a "sexual atmosphere" in the service without ever being called to order by their superiors.

---

Faced with these risks, the DGPN and DGGN have adopted a policy of improving the quality of life at work and preventing psychosocial risks for several years

A mobilisation programme against suicide has been in place since May 2018. It aims to: 

• Better respond to the emergency (report, take charge and support) through training efforts (e-training module to raise awareness of the detection and management of people in suicidal crisis), through work with support associations, through psychological support measures...

• Preventing situations of fragility (understanding, detecting situations and developing a shared culture) by implementing an external implementation of an external telephone helpline staffed by psychologists which operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for the benefit of police officers and their families to facilitate access to psychological care

    

Being a police officer is a hard job to do on a daily basis. The police must be protected.We must therefore support the police force and use these means of prevention to improve the quality of life and health of police officers in the years to come.

Bibliography

Davie.E. (2014, mars). L'exposition aux risques professionnels dans la fonction publique-Une première analyse par métier à partir de l'enquête SUMER 2009-2010. inrs.com

https://www.inrs.fr/media.html?refINRS=TF%20217 

 

 

Marwan Mohammed, Laurent Mucchielli.(2006, février). La police dans les quartiers populaires : un vrai problème!-Mouvements(no 44), pages 58 à 66. cairn.info

https://www.cairn.info/revue-mouvements-2006-2-page-58.htm 

 

 

 

Guide contre le harcèlement sexuel et agissements sexistes au travail: 

 

 

Prévenir,agir,sanctionner. travail-emploi.gouv.fr

https://travail-emploi.gouv.fr/IMG/pdf/30645_dicom_-_guide_contre_harce_lement_sexuel_val_v4_bd_ok-2.pdf