Police at work: the Wave Five report

Since 2007 the Workplace Research Centre (WRC) at the University of Sydney has been collecting data on the work experiences of police officers employed in New South Wales, Victoria, Northern Territory and the Australian Federal Police. The final wave of results in the 'Police at work' study was released in November 2012. In particular, the findings point to ways police officer work, health and safety can be improved to benefit police and their police organisations. Compared with the wider Australian workforce, the study found that more police (44 per cent) feel at risk of injury or illness from their work than others in the Australian workforce (18 per cent). More than twice as many police feel at risk compared with the general workforce. Police who do not feel consulted or fairly treated or who have low trust in their managers are more likely to have work-related accidents or illnesses, lower job satisfaction and psychological health issues. The actual rate of work-related injury or illness is higher among those police officers who experience low trust in their managers (twice as high), do not feel consulted (three times more likely to have suffered a work-related accident) or feel they are not fairly treated at work (more than twice the rate). It was also found that almost one-third (31 per cent) of police officers felt burned out. The findings support the conclusion that organisational climate plays an important role in fostering safe working environments.

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