Exploration of individual and work-related impacts on police officers and police staff working in support or front-line roles during the UK’s first COVID lockdown
| Date | 01 March 2022 |
| Published date | 01 March 2022 |
| Author | Jenny Fleming,Jennifer Brown |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X211052891 |
| Subject Matter | Special Issue Articles |
Special Issue: Are we OK? The State of Wellbeing in Policing
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
2022, Vol. 95(1) 50–72
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/0032258X211052891
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Exploration of individual and
work-related impacts on police
officers and police staff
working in support or
front-line roles during the UK’s
first COVID lockdown
Jennifer Brown
Mannheim Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, England
Jenny Fleming
University of Southampton, Southampton, Ireland
Abstract
An online survey (N= 2063) of women working either as police officers or non-sworn/
warranted police staff addressed personal well-being and work-related factors during the
first COVID lockdown in the United Kingdom from March to August 2020. Overall, 59%
of all respondents reported being more stressed during the lockdown than they had been
previously. A key factor in stress levels was the respondents’organisational support
measured by a computed index of trust, communication, and support (TCS). Those
respondents having a positive orientation towards TCS were less stressed than those
whose orientation was more negative. Findings differentiated the experience of re-
spondents typed as front-line police officers, front-line police staff, police officers serving
in support functions and police staff in support functions. Innovative COVID-19 working
arrangements are highlighted as beneficial new practices worth retaining.
Keywords
Policewomen, COVID-19, stress, police staff, organisational support, well-being
Corresponding author:
Jennifer Brown, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE,
England.
Email: J.Brown5@lse.ac.uk
Introduction
This paper is the third in an interlinked series reporting some early empirical evidence of
the impacts on police personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced by police
officers and non-warranted police staff in England and Wales. Results for the female
officer respondents were reported in Fleming and Brown (2021a) whilst Fleming and
Brown 2021b presented a comparison of police support staff who either worked from
home or remained on the front-line. This paper focuses on women personnel, that is,
police officers and police support staff and incorporates the dimension of home or front-
line working.
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a slew of legislation restricting the movement of
people within the United Kingdom (Crown Prosecution Service, 2020). Colloquially
referred to as ‘the lockdown’, pandemic limiting restrictions initiated new patterns of
work across several sectors as businesses, agencies and organisations sought to lessen the
spread of COVID-19 including working from home, virtual team working and remote
management of staff (Akkermanns et al., 2020;Alipour et al., 2020;Jones et al., 2020;
Kniffin et al., 2021).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the traditional gender inequalities associated with work, caring
responsibilities and family commitments (Van der Lippe et al., 2011;Duxbury and
Halinski 2018) are identified as stress factors as women seek to manage their multiple
roles and increasing workloads (Fleming and Brown 2021a). Azcona et al. (2020) report
the results of an international survey indicating that COVID-19 preventative meas ures are
increasing women’s responsibility for the bulk of work to keep households going (i.e.
household chores, care of children and family). Findings for the United Kingdom
suggested that 17% of women strongly agreed that they had taken on a lot more of these
responsibilities. This percentage placed the United Kingdom midway in an 18-coun try
comparison.
That policing is a stressful occupation is well documented across a number of countries
and jurisdictions (McCarty and Skogan 2013;Terpstra and Schaap 2013;Violanti et al.,
2017;van der Lippe et al., 2011;Purba and Demou 2019;Duxbury et al., 2020;Queirós
et al., 2020). We know that stress not only has negative consequences for police in-
teraction with the public but also on their own physical and mental health and professional
performance (Liberman et al., 2002;Houdmont and Elliot-Davis, 2016;Elliott-Davis
2018). In the context of policing the UK pandemic, Wetherill (2021) observed that
difficulties included the scale of work that was required, the need for front-line officers to
pace themselves and the sustained duration of managing the pandemic, as well as the roles
and tasks required of police generally.
Front-line staff are those ‘in everyday contact with the public and who directly in-
tervene to keep people safe and enforce the law’(HMIC 2011:6). Wetherill (2021) noted
the challenges for front-line staff with the introduction of the ‘Four Es’policy as a way to
police the preventative COVID-19 legislation: that is, Engaging –speaking to people and
establishing their awareness and understanding of the situation; Explaining –educating
people about any personal risks they are taking; Encouraging–offering guidance to
individuals, suggesting they return home; Enforcing –as a last resort, removing a person
Brown and Fleming 51
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