Policing and spirituality: their impact on brain integration and consciousness

Abstract

This paper reports findings from two studies that explore the role of a spiritual framework in buffering toxic experiences police officers encounter in the course of their duty. The first study was an interview of 33 police officers who were active in their law enforcement career. The officers responded to eight core questions about their police work, spiritual history, and spiritual beliefs. Three themes emerged from the content analysis. The second study was a quantitative investigation of psychological performance using Electroencephalography measures. These officers, who were identified with high levels of spirituality in the interview study, had low levels of perceived stress, high levels on the Transcendence dimension, fast executive processing, and high levels of brain integration. These studies suggest that levels of spirituality are grounded in mental and brain functioning, and so could be systematically cultured to help officers deal effectively with the toxic nature of police work.

Keywords:

• spirituality
• policing
• coping mechanisms
• brain integration
• perceived stress
• burnout
• transcendence
• EEG
• behavior

Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to all the police officers who participated in this study.