**3.2 Present study**

The goal of the present chapter is to take a deeper dive and stratify physiological differences between risk-subspecialties, by focusing on officers' subjective reported stress. Because tactical officers have higher objective physiological stress and risk exposure, we expect that tactical police will report higher levels of subjective stress in comparison to frontline police.

#### *3.2.1 Participants*

Frontline Officers (n = 57, 14% female) consisted of police constable level volunteers from a Canadian municipal police force (MAge = 32.80, SD = 6.29;

**119**

*Physiological Stress Responses Associated with High-Risk Occupational Duties*

MExp = 7.09 years, SD = 5.63). Of the 57 participants, 52 provided complete cortisol samples, and 55 provided complete survey data. Inclusion criteria required frontline officers who completed the entirety of their training, and deemed healthy and fit for active duty (as per standards defined and measured by their police service). Exclusion criteria included non-frontline law enforcement or civilian workers, and

Tactical Officers (n = 44, all male; MAge = 32.31, SD = 3.79; MExp = 4.66 years, SD = 3.98) were comprised of three active duty Finnish Special Response Teams: two regional-level (n = 32, MAge = 32.14, SD = 4.26) and one federal-level (n = 12, MAge = 31.50, SD = 2.02) the tactical teams were tested within 6 months of one another. All tactical officers provided complete cortisol and survey data. Inclusion criteria allowed for any tactical team members deemed fit or healthy by their police agency. Exclusion criteria included non-tactical officers or civilian workers, and

For full details of cortisol collection and measurement, refer to Planche et al. [10]. Police participants were instructed to use the passive drool method to collect saliva samples into a collection tube at four time points: immediately upon waking, 30 minutes following wake, before dinner (11 hours post waking), and before bed (~17 hours post waking). Participants were instructed they should not eat, drink, or brush their teeth within the hour before the sample collection. After collection,

Frontline officers' cortisol levels were determined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits (No. 80957; Crystal Chem, Elk Grove Village, Illinois), using a plate reader (Biotek, Winooski, Vermont) and commercial software (Gen 5)

Tactical officers' cortisol samples were collected in Finland and were shipped to an independent laboratory for analyses (Clemens Kirschbaum, Technische Universitat Dresden, DE). Salivary cortisol concentrations were measured using commercially available chemiluminescence-immuno-assay with high sensitivity

To compare frontline and tactical police cortisol levels to the general population, data were extrapolated from **Figure 1** of Miller et al., 2016's North American and European meta-dataset of diurnal salivary cortisol [33]. Salivary cortisol levels were restricted to studies using the Delfia-assay (Dressendörfer et al., 1992, University of Trier) or the IBL chemiluminescence-assay depending on the field study. Average diurnal cortisol value for each of the 10th, 25th, 50th, and 75th, and 90th percentiles general population (15 studies, n = 18,698) for the same time points collected in the frontline and tactical police samples (wake, 30 minutes post-wake, 11 hours

Subjective stress was measured via the Police Stress Questionnaire (PSQ ). The PSQ is a 40-item self-report questionnaire that measures police stress across two subscales (organizational stressors—20 questions, operational stressors—20 questions). Participants are asked to rate stress for each item on a 7-point Likert scale ("No stress" (1) – "Moderate stress" (4) – "A lot of stress" (7)) experienced over the prior 6 months. The PSQ displays high internal consistency on both subscales (Cronbach's α = 0.93Op, 0.92Org); it also has good construct, discriminant, and convergent validity, with low shared variance between the subscales,

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93943*

officers on leave or deemed unfit for duty.

officers deemed unfit for duty.

*3.2.2 Cortisol collection and measurement*

to quantify cortisol concentration.

post-wake, and 17 hours post-wake).

*3.2.3 Subjective stress*

samples were frozen for preservation until analyses.

(IBL assay; IBL International, Hamburg, Germany).

*Physiological Stress Responses Associated with High-Risk Occupational Duties DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93943*

MExp = 7.09 years, SD = 5.63). Of the 57 participants, 52 provided complete cortisol samples, and 55 provided complete survey data. Inclusion criteria required frontline officers who completed the entirety of their training, and deemed healthy and fit for active duty (as per standards defined and measured by their police service). Exclusion criteria included non-frontline law enforcement or civilian workers, and officers on leave or deemed unfit for duty.

Tactical Officers (n = 44, all male; MAge = 32.31, SD = 3.79; MExp = 4.66 years, SD = 3.98) were comprised of three active duty Finnish Special Response Teams: two regional-level (n = 32, MAge = 32.14, SD = 4.26) and one federal-level (n = 12, MAge = 31.50, SD = 2.02) the tactical teams were tested within 6 months of one another. All tactical officers provided complete cortisol and survey data. Inclusion criteria allowed for any tactical team members deemed fit or healthy by their police agency. Exclusion criteria included non-tactical officers or civilian workers, and officers deemed unfit for duty.

#### *3.2.2 Cortisol collection and measurement*

*Occupational Wellbeing*

**3.1 Police stress**

conditions.

physiological and psychological standpoint.

this chapter will focus on the occupation of policing and two subspecialties as an example, given the authors' existing expertise in first responder stress, both from a

Police are often the first to arrive to emergencies where they are regularly exposed to dangerous or threatening situations which pose possible harm to their physical and mental health. Previous literature has established that police exhibit stress responses during active duty and in training [26, 27]. Police occupational stress is significantly linked to poorer health, including lower physical and mental health, and higher physician-diagnosed morbidity, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic syndrome [28]. Heightened anticipatory threat anxiety in these high pressure environments can also result in reduced attentional control that influences active performance [29] and decision making tasks [30] (e.g., motor execution, inhibitory control, use-of-force decisions). Because police health significantly impacts their performance and communities, researchers have focused on understanding how models of physiological stress may apply to their operational stress

While previous research on police diurnal cortisol focused on the effects of factors such as shift-work, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), sleep quality, and cardiovascular disease, there was limited research providing baseline norms for diurnal cortisol patterns as a function of occupational risk. Our research group has addressed an existing gap in the literature by examining diurnal cortisol patterns of police officers from different risk subspecialties, specifically, frontline and tactical police [10]. Frontline police officers' duties include direct interaction with members of the community in response to unlawful acts witnessed while on patrol, or civilian-reported events. As frontline officers are frequently first to arrive to the scene, they also determine if further specialty units are needed to resolve an incident. Specialty units within a police service, such as tactical teams, are equipped with skills, tools, and training to respond to the highest risk incidents that are beyond the capabilities of an average frontline officer (e.g., active shooter events, barricaded suspects, hostage situations); in many police organizations, tactical units are required to first serve as a frontline officer before enrolling in specialized

training to obtain and maintain advanced skills for such incidents [31, 32]. The authors' prior work revealed objective evidence that police had higher diurnal cortisol patterns in comparison to the general population, especially within 30 minutes of waking (CAR). Cortisol levels also differed in respect to police subspecialties. Specifically, tactical officers (the highest risk subspecialty) displayed

The goal of the present chapter is to take a deeper dive and stratify physiological differences between risk-subspecialties, by focusing on officers' subjective reported stress. Because tactical officers have higher objective physiological stress and risk exposure, we expect that tactical police will report higher levels of subjective stress

Frontline Officers (n = 57, 14% female) consisted of police constable level volunteers from a Canadian municipal police force (MAge = 32.80, SD = 6.29;

significantly higher CAR in comparison to frontline officers.

**118**

**3.2 Present study**

*3.2.1 Participants*

in comparison to frontline police.

For full details of cortisol collection and measurement, refer to Planche et al. [10]. Police participants were instructed to use the passive drool method to collect saliva samples into a collection tube at four time points: immediately upon waking, 30 minutes following wake, before dinner (11 hours post waking), and before bed (~17 hours post waking). Participants were instructed they should not eat, drink, or brush their teeth within the hour before the sample collection. After collection, samples were frozen for preservation until analyses.

Frontline officers' cortisol levels were determined with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits (No. 80957; Crystal Chem, Elk Grove Village, Illinois), using a plate reader (Biotek, Winooski, Vermont) and commercial software (Gen 5) to quantify cortisol concentration.

Tactical officers' cortisol samples were collected in Finland and were shipped to an independent laboratory for analyses (Clemens Kirschbaum, Technische Universitat Dresden, DE). Salivary cortisol concentrations were measured using commercially available chemiluminescence-immuno-assay with high sensitivity (IBL assay; IBL International, Hamburg, Germany).

To compare frontline and tactical police cortisol levels to the general population, data were extrapolated from **Figure 1** of Miller et al., 2016's North American and European meta-dataset of diurnal salivary cortisol [33]. Salivary cortisol levels were restricted to studies using the Delfia-assay (Dressendörfer et al., 1992, University of Trier) or the IBL chemiluminescence-assay depending on the field study. Average diurnal cortisol value for each of the 10th, 25th, 50th, and 75th, and 90th percentiles general population (15 studies, n = 18,698) for the same time points collected in the frontline and tactical police samples (wake, 30 minutes post-wake, 11 hours post-wake, and 17 hours post-wake).

#### *3.2.3 Subjective stress*

Subjective stress was measured via the Police Stress Questionnaire (PSQ ). The PSQ is a 40-item self-report questionnaire that measures police stress across two subscales (organizational stressors—20 questions, operational stressors—20 questions). Participants are asked to rate stress for each item on a 7-point Likert scale ("No stress" (1) – "Moderate stress" (4) – "A lot of stress" (7)) experienced over the prior 6 months. The PSQ displays high internal consistency on both subscales (Cronbach's α = 0.93Op, 0.92Org); it also has good construct, discriminant, and convergent validity, with low shared variance between the subscales,

low shared variance to other general stress measures, and positively correlates with other measures of job satisfaction [34]. For this study, the 20 items of the operational stress subscale of the PSQ (PSQ-Op) was used for measuring selfreported subjective operational job-context related stress in frontline and tactical police officers.
