Impacts of Alternative Policing on Officer Health: The Community Engagement Unit (CEU)

Abstract

Created by the Waterloo Regional Police Service (Ontario-Canada), the Community Engagement Unit (CEU) links high-needs community members with specially trained police and to appropriate social services. Whether living with homelessness, poor mental health, domestic violence, or substance use, and often with several of these challenges simultaneously, high-needs community members often require greater police attention. Indeed, CEU officers act as a “911 calls diversion centre” by redirecting high-needs individuals away from traditional law enforcement approaches and towards relevant social service agencies. However, due to their unique work environment, CEU officers likely experience additional/unique stressors that may impact their health. As a result, when developing alternative policing units like the CEU, recognizing the potential stressors of such work and their impact on the police service is essential. This mixed methods study utilizes semi-structured interviews and surveys to assess the work environment of CEU officers relative to traditional police officers to improve our understanding of stress-related health risk factors within alternative policing units. Five CEU officers were recruited via email to participate in a 1-hour semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews developed the CEU ‘phenotype’ by assessing the unique work environment, roles, and responsibilities of CEU officers. The CEU officers were asked to reflect on these aspects of their work compared to previous units (primarily patrol). The experience of stress in CEU is more prolonged and chronic, given the continuous nature of their interactions with high-needs individuals, as opposed to the fast-paced, case-to-case stress nature of patrol units. This ‘slow-burn’ stress, combined with the frustration of navigating under-resourced community social support systems and moral distress when cases lack resolution, is likely to present unique challenges to the officers' health and well-being. Surveys collected standard demographic information and included validated scales to measure self-reported health, health-risk behaviours, given and received social support, and varying levels and types of police-specific stressors using the operational and organizational police stress questionnaires (PSQ-Op, PSQ-Org). Seven CEU officers (14.0%) and 43 traditional (TRAD) officers (86.0%) were recruited via e-mail to participate in the survey. CEU officers had lower levels of fatigue (-42.5%), shiftwork (-57.6%), working alone at night (-58.3%) and internal investigations (-63.3%) compared to TRAD officers. This study reveals distinct differences between CEU and TRAD officers. CEU officers report lower fatigue and less shiftwork but experience prolonged "slow-burn" stress due to ongoing interactions with high-needs individuals and frustrations with under-resourced support systems. These findings emphasize the need for tailored support systems in alternative policing units like the CEU. Improved mental health resources, decompression opportunities, and clear mandates can help reduce health risks associated with their unique stressors. This study adds to the research on alternative policing, highlighting the importance of understanding occupational health in non-traditional police roles.