“It's frustrating … I didn’t join to sit behind a desk”: Police paperwork as a source of organizational stress
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14613557231188578 |
| Author | Rosemary Ricciardelli,Marina Carbonell,Lorna Ferguson,Laura Huey |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
“It’s frustrating …I didn’t join to sit behind
a desk”: Police paperwork as a source
of organizational stress
Rosemary Ricciardelli
Fisheries and Marine Institute at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Marina Carbonell
Fisheries and Marine Institute at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada
Lorna Ferguson
University of Western Ontario, Canada
Laura Huey
University of Western Ontario, Canada
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 organ-
izational 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 respon-
sible 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.
Keywords
Paperwork, police, well-being, stressors, organization stress
Submitted 25 May 2023, accepted 30 Jun 2023
Introduction
Researchers have long demonstrated that policing is a profes-
sion that can, and too often does, result in occupational stres-
sors (Antony et al., 2020; JM Brown and Campbell, 1990;
Pranzo and Pranzo, 1999; Randall, 2013). The roots of
these occupational stress injuries include, but are by no
means limited to, organizational and operational job stressors.
Operational stressors in policing are well recognized (see, for
example J Brown et al., 1999; Purba and Demou, 2019;
Shane, 2010; Violanti et al., 2017); they are the acute situa-
tions, incidents, and responses to calls for services that
also gain police officers’recognition as first responders
Corresponding author:
Rosemary Ricciardelli, W3023, School of Maritime Studies, Fisheries and
Marine Institute, 155 Ridge Road, St John’s, Newfoundland A1C 5R3,
Canada.
Email: rricciardell@mun.ca
Original Research Article
International Journal of
Police Science & Management
2023, Vol. 25(4) 516–528
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/14613557231188578
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