Police Officers and Their Alcohol Consumption: Should We Be Concerned?

Police Officers and Their Alcohol Consumption: Should We Be Concerned?

Police Officers and Their Alcohol Consumption: Should We Be Concerned?

Article Type: Perspectives on policing From: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Volume 31, Issue 3

Vicki LindsayPolice QuarterlyVol. 11 No. 12008pp. 74-87

American police officers are not immune to the detrimental effects and risks associated with alcohol abuse. In fact, it has been estimated that approximately 20 per cent of police officers in the USA maintain harmful levels of alcohol consumption – a figure thought to be double that of the general population. Nevertheless, Lindsay (2008) noted that, to date, there are no comprehensive empirical studies that assess alcohol consumption and risk among police officers in the USA.

Of the limited studies that have examined American police officers and their alcohol consumption, results offer a mixed story as to why they drink and the extent of their consumption. First, alcohol consumption among American police officers has been linked to a variety of sources: stress, low job satisfaction, a “drinking culture”, and gender (i.e. policing is a male-dominated career where men are more apt to bond through alcohol than females). Second, regarding the extent of drinking, some studies report that alcohol consumption by American police officers is relatively modest and at a level similar to other occupations. By contrast, other research has found that police administrators view alcohol abuse as a major concern for law enforcement.

Lindsay (2008) argued that these disparate research findings suggest the need for a more comprehensive study that examines the characteristics of alcohol consumption among American police officers. To that end, she administered the World Health Organization’s Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) to a sample of full-time Mississippi police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and state police officers.

The AUDIT instrument is a ten-item questionnaire designed to identify an individual’s frequency and amount of alcohol consumption as well as others’ reaction to their drinking. Depending on a respondent’s AUDIT score, an individual’s consumption level is ranked as no risk, harmful, or hazardous. The AUDIT instrument was administered over a three-month period and netted a final sample 663 completed questionnaires (49.92 per cent response rate). Overall, the sample reflected the characteristics of the general Mississippi law enforcement population.

Descriptive statistics from the AUDIT instrument provided some cursory information about the characteristics of alcohol consumption among the sample of Mississippi officers. First, the majority of police officers (73.7 per cent) had AUDIT scores between 0 and 7 indicating they were at no risk of alcohol problems. However, 16.8 per cent of the sample scored between 8 and 15, meaning they are at a harmful risk level for alcohol problems. Finally, only 1 per cent of the officers consumed alcohol at a hazardous risk level.

Next, Chi-square analysis was used to determine if any significant relationships existed between officer characteristics and AUDIT risk categories. Results indicated that race, marital status, region, and drinking companions were significantly related to certain risk categories. First, white and single officers were more likely to have harmful or hazardous drinking habits. Second, officers who work the day shift were more likely to fall into the harmful or hazardous risk categories. Third, officers from the harmful risk group drank mostly with non-coworker friends while officers from the hazardous risk group drank mostly with other officers. Finally, officers from the Southern or Coastal region of Mississippi were more likely to drink at harmful or hazardous levels relative to officers from the Northern region.

Lindsay (2008) also examined whether levels of alcohol consumption differed between the sample of officers and the general population. Results indicated no statistically significant difference between the amount of alcohol consumed by Mississippi officers and the general population. In fact, data showed that alcohol consumption levels among the general population were marginally greater than those of the surveyed officers. As mentioned earlier, most of the officers that do consume alcohol do so within healthy parameters as designated by the AUDIT instrument.

Finally, Lindsay (2008) compared the level of Mississippi officers who had alcohol problems with estimates founds in other studies from America and Australia. First, similar to the previous estimate that 20 per cent of American police officers have drinking problems, 19.6 per cent of Mississippi officers drank at a harmful or hazardous level. Despite this similarity, this consumption level is much lower than the estimated 33.2 per cent of Australian officers who maintain risky drinking levels.

In conclusion, this study demonstrated that drinking patterns among police officers and the general public are not different. However, since police officer drinking is likely to remain a concern among law enforcement administrators, this article is useful in that it identifies the characteristics of officers that are associated with alcohol problems.