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PubMed1990

Medication in police custody.

Police Officers have an obligation to look after the welfare of the persons detained by them. As such persons may require to be given medication on a regular basis during their period of custody which may last a few days, the Police are also responsible for ensuring that this takes place. To identify the extent of this requirement, a survey was carried out by questionnaire in Edinburgh over a period of one month. Thirty-five per cent [corrected] of the 127 detainees were carrying with them a variety of drugs or required to be given medication on a regular basis. The problems associated with this practice are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1977

Police negotiations. A new role for the community psychiatrist.

This paper reviews the type of individual who might be involved in a hostage situation and police negotations. It singles out those clinical characteristics which are important in determining the management of the negotiations, and in doing so adds a plea for psychiatrists to become involved in an advisory role. By pointing out the need for psychiatrists and police to review some of the problems and determine a common approach before the situations arise, an additional characteristic is added to the role description of the community psychiatrist.

Community Psychiatry↗
PubMed1975

Social evaluation research: the evaluation of two police patrolling strategies.

In most social evaluation research it is difficult to achieve the degree of experimental rigor possible in an applied behavioral study. This study illustrates how the evaluation researcher can increase experimental rigor in the analysis of social interventions. In the first evaluation, a variation of the time-series design that offered maximum experimental control given the limitations of the situation, was employed to evaluate the effects of a specialized home-burglary police patrol. This design revealed that no effects could be attributed to the patrol. In the second evaluation, a multiple baseline-like design was possible in determining the effects of a police walking patrol. This design revealed that the patrol produced an increase in crime reporting but not in arrests. Social interventions often occur in a manner that allows varying degrees of experimental analysis. The evaluation researcher must attain optimal experimental analysis given the limitations of each social intervention.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1980

Reduction of police vehicle accidents through mechaniically aided supervision.

Tachograph recorders were installed in 224 vehicles of a metropolitan police department to monitor vehicle operation in an attempt to reduce the rate of accidents. Police sergeants reviewed each tachograph chart and provided feedback to officers regarding their driving performance. Reliability checks and additional feedback procedures were implemented so that upper level supervisors monitored and controlled the performance of field sergeants. The tachograph intervention and components of the feedback system nearly eliminated personal injury accidents and sharply reduced accidents caused by officer negligence. A cost-benefit analysis revealed that the savings in vehicle repair and injury claims outweighed the equipment and operating costs.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1989

The police stress survey: reliability and relation to job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

The 1981 Police Stress Survey of Spielberger, Westbury, Grier, and Greenfield was administered to 99 metropolitan and suburban police officers. Internal consistency reliabilities were in the .90s for both the total scale and two subscales which measure administrative/organizational and physical/psychological stressors. The administrative/organizational, but not the physical/psychological, subscale was significantly related to measures of job satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1990

Publicity, police resources and the effectiveness of random breath testing.

Random breath testing (RBT) of drivers by the police was introduced in South Australia in 1981 at a very low level of enforcement. As there was no lasting effect on illegal "drink driving" the resources devoted to RBT were increased in 1987. In the months after this change police doubled the number of drivers tested by RBT. Concurrent with this change in the level of enforcement of RBT was an extensive publicity campaign, which warned drinking drivers of their increased risk of detection by RBT units. A roadside breath alcohol survey, conducted in metropolitan Adelaide late at night to evaluate the effect of these changes, showed a 34% reduction in the proportion of car drivers detected with a blood alcohol concentration at or above the legal limit of 0.08 g/100 mL.

Alcohol Drinking↗
PubMed2003

Substance-use disorders and psychological distress among police arrestees.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the 12-month prevalence of substance-use disorders and psychological morbidity in an Australian arrestee population. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: 288 police arrestees at the Brisbane City Police Watch House in February and March 2001. OUTCOME MEASURES: Prevalence of drug and alcohol disorders; psychological "caseness" according to the 28-item General Health Questionnaire; demographics and index offences. RESULTS: 86% of the arrestees had at least one substance-use disorder; most had multiple disorders. More than 80% were substance dependent. The predominant substances used were amphetamines, marijuana, opioids and alcohol. 82% of the men and 94% of the women were suffering significant psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: Development of services for detoxification and treatment of this population is a pressing need. The findings provide crucial information for the planning and implementation of drug courts and court diversion systems.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

Building and maintaining an effective working relationship with local police and fire authorities.

The need to work together with local police and fire personnel is essential to the success of any healthcare security or safety operation. Sometimes, however, lack of understanding by each side in the role of the other, creates needlessly strained relations. In this article, the author details the techniques he used to win good rapport with the local police and fire departments.

Community-Institutional Relations↗
PubMed2001

Abdominal wall penetration by a police "bean bag".

Police departments across the country now have at their disposal a "nonlethal" weapon known as a "bean bag" shotgun. The bean bags, which come loaded in standard shotgun shells, are missiles intended to disable dangerous suspects without having to resort to lethal force. They were specifically designed not to create penetrating injuries. Here we present a case of abdominal wall penetration by a police bean bag. To our knowledge this is the first such reported case of this type of injury.

Abdominal Muscles↗
PubMed1975

A review of rejected police candidates.

This paper reviews the activities of a Civil Service Medical Review Board which has reviewed the appeals of civil service applicants, particularly for police work, who have been rejected for psychiatric reasons by the hiring authority on the grounds of "mental unfitness." In a 1-1/2-year period, 98 cases have been reviewed. The Board has upheld the applicant in 65% of the cases and the hiring authority in 35% of the cases. Some of the factors resulting in the reversal of the decision of the hiring authority have been discussed. These include insufficient and superficial examination, inappropriate use of test material, attitudinal biases by the examiner, and inadequate reports which do not provide the adequate documentation required by law. It has been the hope of the Board that this review of professional judgment will ultimately impress both hiring authorities and examiners with the defects of the procedures utilized and will encourage them to provide higher quality screening which will be upheld on appeal. To a degree this has been accomplished. Hiring authorities were upheld in only 25% of the cases from September 1973 to March 1974 and 18% from March 1974 to September 1974. This changed radically in the September 1974 to December 1974 period, when hiring authorities were upheld in 60% of the appeals. As has been pointed out, such screening primarily involves review of personality disorders which, by their nature, require thoroughness of knowledge and delicacy of judgment for the formulation of a reasonable conclusion. It is hoped that these lessons will ultimately result in the selection of police officers likely to be successful at their tasks, without arbitrary rejection of those who reasonably merit a trial at work so essential to our society.

Evaluation Studies as Topic↗
PubMed1992

[Suicide in the Ravensburg/Oberschwaben area. Results of a study of 508 suicides based on criminal police records].

On the basis of criminal police files we studied 508 suicides which happened between 1970 up to 1981 in the Ravensburg area in southern Germany. The police files also included medical records about in- or outpatient psychiatric treatment and also data about former violent behaviour. Mental disease as follows were most frequent: Depression 66% (diagnoses were made according to IDC-0 by two doctors under supervision of two senior psychiatrists; ICD-9: 300.4, 309.0 and 309.1 22%, ICD-9 296.1, 296.3 7.1% of the entire suicide group); neuroses and personality disorders 19%, addition, especially alcoholism, 28%. No psychiatric diagnosis could be made retrospectively in 10.6% (54 suicides). Sign in the presuicidal development like depressive symptoms, hopelessness and feelings of having no future, sleeping disturbances, feelings of guilt and anxiety, inner restlessness, but also changes in the direction of serenity and relaxation, treats of suicidal behaviour and reactions of the family and environment were reported showing a broad span of reactions from lack of perception to wrong interpretation. 15% of the suicides had also criminal activities in their former history. From a psychiatric point of view, improved diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in the treatment of the mentally ill, especially in the field of outpatient medical care of depressive and addictive patients, and better information of the relatives is to be demanded in order to prevent suicides.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

[Results of testing well water from an area influenced by the chemical plant "Police"].

The subject of this study was the determination of the correlation between the operation of Chemical Plant "Police" and contamination of underground waters. The waters from ten wells in 16 localities were tested in 1982, 1987 and 1990. The indicators of contaminations emitted in different form by Chemical Plant "Police" as fluorides, ammonia and its derivatives nitrites and nitrates, sulphates, phosphates and also chlorides were tested. Bacteriological examinations of water also were performed. Investigations performed in 1987, confronted to 1982, showed development concentration of ammonia and minor as depends fluorides and sulphates. In 1990 lowering of average level of all chemical indicators were obtained. Presumable the introduction of technological changes in Plant determined the reduction of contaminations of underground water in this area.

Chemical Industry↗
PubMed2004

Linking crime guns: the impact of ballistics imaging technology on the productivity of the Boston Police Department's Ballistics Unit.

Ballistics imaging technology has received national attention as a potent tool for moving the law enforcement response to violent gun criminals forward by linking multiple crime scenes to one firearm. This study examines the impact of ballistics imaging technology on the productivity of the Boston Police Department's Ballistics Unit. Using negative binomial regression models to analyze times series data on ballistics matches, we find that ballistics imaging technology was associated with a more than sixfold increase in the monthly number of ballistics matches made by the Boston Police Department's Ballistics Unit. Cost-effectiveness estimates and qualitative evidence also suggest that ballistics imaging technology allows law enforcement agencies to make hits that would not have been possible using traditional ballistics methods.

Boston↗
PubMed1985

[On the issue of stress in police work.].

This article aims to describe briefly the specific sources of stress in police work, the distinguishing features of this group of workers and the essential characteristics of a help service in the police milieu.

English Abstract↗
PubMed1991

Effects of the Taser in fatalities involving police confrontation.

Sixteen deaths associated with the use of the Taser were examined. All involved young males who had a history of abuse of controlled substances; all but three were under the influence of cocaine, phencyclidine [phenylcyclohexylpiperidine (PCP)], or amphetamine. All were behaving in a bizarre or unusual fashion which necessitated calling the police. The cause of death was an overdose of drugs in eleven, gunshot wounds in three, heart disease and Taser shock in one, and an undetermined cause in one. All were considered to be under the influence of PCP by the police at the time of the incident. All were unarmed, which was the reason a Taser was used instead of a more lethal weapon. The conclusion reached after evaluation of these cases is that the Taser in and of itself does not cause death, although it may have contributed to death in one case.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

[Medical cooperation in cases of detention. 1 year's experience in the Odense police district].

On 22.5.1987, a law was introduced in Denmark according to which persons under the influence of alcohol detained by the police should, as a rule, be medically examined. In Denmark (not including the Faroe islands and Greenland), 40% out of 26,598 persons placed in detention were medically examined in 1988. Out of 918 persons placed in detention in the Odense police district, 66% were medically examined and of these 5% were referred to hospital for further examination and/or treatment. Four of these were admitted, three of whom had life-threatening poisonings and one on account of a potentially disabling condition. No deaths occurred in detention in Odense. It seems reasonable that all persons placed in detention should be seen by a doctor and, similarly, the protective function of detention should be emphasized.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

Psychiatric screening of civil service candidates with particular reference to police applicants.

This prelimary report has reviewed the activities of a Medical Review Board for a Civil Service Commission. The responsibility of the Board is to review conflicting data in cases where the hiring authority has attempted to exclude a candidate, particularly a police candidate, on the grounds that the applicant is mentally unfit to perform the duties of the position. This rule has been applied primarily to police applicants, secondarily to fireman applicants, and rarely to other. Psychiatrists who participate must be aware of the underlying conflicts within civil service systems, the possibility of manipulation, and the rigidity of the system which is designed to protect the greatest number. Civil service systems have limited discretion on personnel policies. Therefore, psychiatrists must be careful not to act as arbiters for social institutions without a sound and meticulous basis for their participation. For those psychiatrists who participate in the process, the urgent need to do so in accord with professional standards is stressed, recognizing that standards change and that the nature of participation will be scrutinized by many in society outside the profession.

Civil Rights↗
PubMed1990

A study of police referrals to Woodbridge Hospital.

This is a retrospective study of 127 cases brought by the police under Section 32 of the Mental Health Act (1973). The aims of the study were to collect epidemiological data and to review the mental health provisions. Majority of the patients were Chinese, male, 20-39 age-group, single, unemployed, schizophrenic with previous admissions to Woodbridge Hospital. Aggressive behaviour and public nuisance were the commonest reasons for police interventions. Ninety percent of the patients required admissions to hospital. There was no apparent misuse of the Mental Health Act.

Adult↗