SA Police officers stay in the job for only 8.7 years on average — and that number is shrinking as stress takes its toll
POLICE are burning out at an increasing rate as new statistics reveal the surprisingly short amount of time South Australian recruits are staying in the job.
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POLICE recruits are burning out after an average of just 8.7 years as the stress of the job takes its toll.
Figures released by SA Police show over the past three years, young officers are abandoning the job more quickly as mental health pressures and physical injuries take their toll.
Discounting those officers who retire after reaching age 55, the average police career now lasts less than a decade.
Three years ago the average career for officers who resigned or were sacked lasted 9.1 years — but in the last financial year that figure had dropped to 7 years.
The figures showing the state of the service were only released by SAPOL management after a request using the Freedom of Information Act.
Over the past three financial years, 163 officers resigned, 37 left as invalids, seven died and five were dismissed. A further 230 retired at an average age of 59.7 years.
Serving officer and emergency services health advocate Senior Constable Brett Gibbons said the figures were in keeping with other Australian police services — officers typically either had a long-term career or left within a few years because of the pressure of the job.
“There is a saying ‘stay for four or stay for 40 (years)’ which gets banded around a lot, meaning that people usually quit after four years because the job doesn’t fit with them for family/pay/lifestyle reasons, or they stick around until retirement,’’ he said.
“It makes the average length of service come out to eight or nine years.’’
Sen-Constable Gibbons, who was shot in the face while attending a domestic violence murder, recently launched the website www.emergencyarchives.com and Facebook page under the same name to help uniformed workers cope with the stresses of their work.
“The community feedback has been positive, with plenty of people sending articles and research that is then assessed for the site,’’ he said.
“I receive a lot of feedback about the impact having access to this information has on emergency services members and their families.’’
Former police minister and Australian Conservatives MLC Robert Brokenshire said he had inquired about the welfare of police officers because numerous officers had contacted his office seeking help.
He said they had told him of the terrible toll stress was taking on themselves and their families.
“You can see from SAPOL’s own figures there are more and more people leaving at a younger and younger age and that should be a wake-up call to everyone that there is some real stress and suffering out there for officers,’’ Mr Brokenshire said.
“They need more support and police work is getting more and more complicated and much harder to just go home, turn off and come back and get on with the job the next day.”
Police Association of South Australia secretary Thomas Scheffler said the job of policing was becoming increasingly complex and challenging, but there were numerous initiatives being undertaken to get early help for officers.
The SAPOL figures also show that while none of the officers resigned because of ill-health, seven sworn officers passed away and 37 left the force as invalids.
“Over the recent decades, far too many police officers have, in one way or another, fallen victim to work-related mental-health issues,’’ Mr Scheffler said.
“I think that until now, too few decision-makers have understood the personal impact of police work: dealing so frequently with death, violence, addiction, paedophilia and so on.
“We’re kidding ourselves if we think these things don’t come with consequences for mental health.
“None of us wants the rate of mental disorder to continue or, indeed, worsen and lead to the loss of more and more quality police officers.
“Let’s remember that there’s no magical well from which we can just keep drawing more officers as others fall victim to psychological trauma.”
Acting Deputy Commissioner Linda Fellows said with an increased effort in recent years, more officers were being given early help as the force implemented measures to reduce stigma for those with mental health issues.
“With the increased focus on mental health and wellbeing we are seeing, as we would expect, an increase in the numbers of police officers who are seeking the assistance of our Employee Assistance Services,’’ she said.