New approaches to compare Police practice in Europe: an occupational health perspective.

Nowadays, police forces in most European countries face extremely difficult times, characterized by new threats of crime and disorder, austerity, and increased heterogeneity of societies. It is well known, that exposure of police forces to potential stress sources over time has been associated with several physical and psychological health problems and can impact the welfare of citizens. There seems to be an urgency to compare occupational health practices of police forces in Europe aiming to enrich knowledge and share best practices. Despite this need, little work has been developed, probably due to the difficulties that emerge when conducting comparative studies on police in Europe. These include diversity of police forces and respective duties, as well as difficulty to standardize occupational health research methods across countries. Traditionally previous research investigating police stress relied mainly on questionnaires. However, the SCOPE project proposes a disruptive technology to investigate stress physiological indicators among police officers working in real world. The method is currently being tested among Portuguese Police officers and seems to provide valuable information about stress reactivity and coping strategies of police officers while working on duty. Findings will allow an understanding of stress reactions during patrol tasks and aim to provide efficient coping interventions. This method may be a promising tool to develop future comparative occupational health studies among police officers in Europe