“It's frustrating … I didn’t join to sit behind a desk”: Police paperwork as a source of organizational stress

Abstract

Police officers are responsible for both proactive and reactive policing; however, every call for service, at a minimum, equates to an administrative process that is time-consuming and appears to distract from the ability of police officers to do their investigative and community-oriented police work. In this article, we explore the administrative processes that are paperwork as a source of organizational stress. Specifically, we draw on researcher observational field notes, focus groups, as well as interview data discussing the paperwork processes as a part of and contributing to the organizational and operational stressors experienced by, and the psychological burden and its effects on, police officers in a provincial policing agency in Canada. Results indicate not only the sheer volume of paperwork that police are responsible for, but also the extended time being spent “catching up” administratively and the psychological implications of such processes on their well-being, including, for example, decreased morale, frustration, and feeling overwhelmed.