help you: letter to police officers from researchers of the Blue Poppy Study

Every police officer reading this can relate to that quote. Policing is hard work, and you should quite rightly expect to be supported in your day-to-day activities. Only a small portion of Western Australians go to work each day facing the risk of personal injury, whilst maintaining qualities of sensitivity and understanding.

Police officers are now suffering increased distress associated with; high workloads; procedural red tape; shifting goals and priorities; investigative deadlines; court deadlines. But police officers are resilient and will usually cope by setting new coping mechanisms. The problem with coping is, in the process of adapting to higher and higher levels of pressure, eventually stress will give way to distress and coping is overcome by maladaptive behaviours, such as anxiety, depression, addictions and violence.

The problem with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and workplace distress is that neither us, as researchers, nor the police force can predict when your adaptive capacities will break and you will become injured. We need to learn more and to do that, we need you to assist us in our research as we delve into the injury, stigma associated with PTSD.

Historically, police officers have been suspicious of researchers and academics who they view as being elite and out of touch with contemporary policing. Conversely, researchers have claimed that officers are defensive and unwilling to learn from external sources. Aside from the police officers themselves, organisations are also suspicious of examination from external sources.

As far back as 1986 it was recognised in the UK that communications between academics and police did not take place. The idiom ‘dialogue of the deaf’ was created to describe the impasse between the two tribes. This is not intended as a slight on the hearing impaired, rather, as a metaphor for an organisational culture that refuses to hear. We need to undo the dialogue of the deaf and to do that we want to hear from you, the men and women of WA Police. For that we need data, in legal vernacular: evidence.

The Blue Poppy Anonymous Survey

Another of the ridiculously hard tasks of policing is the gathering of evidence. Police officers must sift through hearsay, rumour and gossip to get to the facts, particularly for facts that can be produced as evidence in court. Similarly, the science of health and medicine must also seek fact from fiction. We all know someone who is currently suffering PTSD but currently this knowledge is anecdotal. Anecdote is subjective, it is the hearsay of science. Anecdotal evidence is based on observation and experience, and will point us toward a problem but it cannot be independently verified or proven. Science, on the other hand is objective and must stand up to intellectual rigor.

Originally, this research was going to be carried out by me whilst I was still with WA Police and, for a while, it looked like being successful. Conducting research into policing can be problematic as there can be significant organisational and cultural barriers to overcome. As it turned out, I was unable to overcome the organisational barriers and the research was brought to a halt. That’s where your Union stepped in. The Blue Poppy Study, introduced in the December edition of Police News , is a joint partnership between the WA PTSD Research Foundation and the WA Police Union. We are attempting to establish the prevalence of PTSD in the WA Police because, at the present time, there is no hard data of PTSD in WA Police. Involving the members of the WA Police Union in the research process will ultimately move policing forward. We will do that by conducting a quantitative study and for that we need numbers. High numbers in research equates to better quality evidence and makes our argument for improvement stronger. We will obtain our evidence through an anonymous survey instrument that we trust will provide an important and necessary lens into PTSD within the WA Police. We urge you to participate.

Dan Talbot Lead Researcher, Blue Poppy Study

The foundation anticipates the survey being rolled out within the next 2-3 months and the WA Police Union will keep members posted with any updates. If members have any questions, they are welcome to contact WAPU.