The Angry Cop - Part 2

He is a familiar character of countless movies, TV dramas, and police procedurals - the angry, embattled, cynical cop. Unappreciated by the public, pushed around by his bosses, and understood only by those who share his job; the fictional hero fights against long odds and bureaucratic pushback to do what is right.

Or perhaps he is the unexpected villain; an object lesson for us on the vulnerability of our humanity and ideals. The angry cop is a well known fictional staple to aficionados of crime drama.

But to many of us in and close to law enforcement, the angry cop is a staple of our real world. If we are honest, the angry cop might even be us.

Common sources of LEO anger

Many things have the potential to lead to angry, disaffected cops, and most of them can be categorized as either external or internal sources. Without trying to compile an exhaustive list, let us define and look at examples of each source type:

External sources are those that impact LEOs, individually or as a group, that are directly related to the law enforcement job but come from outside the officer's work or home site. Ask many police officers what they think of the media and you will see a strong reaction. Law enforcement is rarely featured in papers or on the evening news unless to highlight allegations of wrong-doing or something controversial. Even then, the stories frequently paint the officers involved or their agencies in an unflattering light and, even if they are ultimately exonerated, with only rare follow-up to clear the air. The media outlet has moved on by that point. For many cops, turning on the news or opening the morning paper becomes a perilous task. Their eyes fall on one more partially told story, or their ears hear one more reporter ask why the officer did not "just shoot the gun out of the assailant's hand instead of 'shooting to kill,'" and they feel the bile begin to rise.

Cops find themselves scrutinized, and often criticized, by not just the media but others in the public who hold strong opinions about how they should do their jobs while having virtually no understanding of what the job is about. Law enforcement is a highly visible but poorly understood career, and this can lead to baseless, and frustrating, criticism.

Internal sources also impact LEOs, individually or as a group, and are directly related to the law enforcement job, but they originate within either the agency or somewhere else within the officer's life. Departmental policy, procedural, personnel, or disciplinary decisions that seem to defy logic or fairness are a pervasive source of frustration. Frustration with equipment, training, or staffing issues is frequently expressed, and many LEOs feel unsupported by their administration or supervisors when they feel various external pressures bearing down on them.

The strains of a law enforcement career also impact the LEOs personal life. Family issues, and the pain the can cause, can fuel anger when the lines between professional and personal life blur or disappear altogether. Add in a few professional disappointments and a lost opportunity or two to the mix, and is it any wonder so many cops look around their departments and think, with friends like these, who needs enemies.

Defining anger - a review

In Part 1, we stated anger is "most commonly understood to be an emotion, or feeling, that can range from very mild irritation to all-consuming rage." Anger is actually a larger "umbrella emotion" under which other commonly described feelings fall. For instance, frustration, irritation, hurt, disappointment, anxiety, and other common feelings people describe may likely be variations of anger.

We also described anger as "far more than a mere emotional state of feeling; it is a highly evolved response to threats to our emotional or physical well-being and is necessary for our individual and societal survival."

Remember, anger is a necessary and important emotion that serves as a catalyst for action when we detect a threat to our physical or emotional well-being. Anger, depending upon how it is managed, can be either a positive (constructive) or negative (destructive) force.

Unmet (sometimes unrealistic) expectations about how the public, the media, our families and friends, and the agency and bosses should act and think will lead to anger for almost all LEOs at some point in their career. How that anger is channeled and managed can determine the course of the officer's career and life.

Anger as a constructive force

Events that prompt anger can come from external (unfair treatment at work, poor customer service) or internal (disappointment over your own poor job performance, embarrassment about how you treated another person) occurrences and the resultant anger can be focused outwardly or inwardly. Many people are mistaken in the belief that it is wrong or bad to feel anger, or that anger is somehow inherently destructive. Channeled properly, anger can motivate us to call attention to and confront unfairness, or to demand more from those who are supposed to serve us. It can motivate us to examine ourselves and take corrective action where needed, or to seek forgiveness and strive to be better to others.

Righteous anger has driven much of our history. The United States was born of angry patriots asserting for a new type of nation, and a new type of government. Angry abolitionists refused to accept the status quo of the early nineteenth century and insisted on the freedom of all men, regardless of their skin color. An angry world mobilized to confront the rise and threat of fascism in the mid-twentieth century. Controlled anger demanded, and won, sweeping change in Civil Rights law throughout the fifties and sixties. Righteous anger, skillfully wielded, is a potent force.

Anger as a destructive force

Powerful as anger can be for good, unchecked it is a very destructive force, shredding professional standing, marriages, families, and friendships. You have all seen the effects of uncontrolled anger on the calls you respond to. You have also seen it in the diminished careers of colleagues who cannot quite shake its grip, until ultimately it defines them.

Left unchecked, it can lead to hopelessness and helplessness, a sense of no longer having control of one's own life, and even poor health or early death.

So, if you are an angry cop, or are at risk of becoming one, start by searching for and unearthing the sources of your anger. Next month, we will present tactics to control and channel anger for good, and to neutralize its potential harm.