Police work is arduous, stressful, and terribly thankless. Perhaps from no other profession is so much demanded with so little recompense. As early as 1714, Daniel Defoe wrote, “Imposition of the office of a constable is an unsupportable hardship. it takes so much of a man’s time that his own affairs are frequently neglected, too often to his own ruin.” In India, a study by the National Productivity Council highlighted the fact that “in many police stations of the country, a constable has to work 15 to 16 hours a day and seven days a week.

Recuperation time is short and facilities for proper recreation are limited.” I recollect that while I was posted as a Range DIG, I sought to introduce one day off in a week for all police personnel from the rank of inspectors to constables. But this measure could not be implemented due to the shortage of staff and a host of other unpredictable commitments of the police officers. In police, the pressure of work is further compounded by the emotionally disturbing and disrupting nature of the job.

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A police officer must deal frequently with the most depraved and crooked elements in society. He witnesses daily human frailties and malignities and man’s inhumanity to man. Arthur Neiderhoffer, an American police officer, describes the view as, “Hobbesian ~ the world becomes a jungle, in which, crime, corruption and brutality are the normal features of the terrain.” Admittedly, the police job is fraught with risks and dangers. There are constant dangers of physical attacks on police personnel and many policemen die with their boots on. Violence against police does not generate the same shock and horror in our country as seen in many other countries. Emotion is blunted by the familiarity of such occurrences. However, there are other jobs, like that of a coal miner, which is perhaps riskier, but the police work could be emotionally more disturbing. It transforms many police officers and men into cynics.

Cynicism generates an attitude of distrust of the sincerity of human nature, motives, and actions. They cease to be, “tolerant observers of human comedy and successful agents for change”. Like cancer, cynicism does not respect rank or status and it can grow in an individual without the latter fully realising it. Emotionally upsetting challenges and frequent frustrations of police work, provide the ideal background for such disorders. I have often seen even very senior police officers throwing in the towel and saying with gritted teeth that the police cannot change or improve, as well as bitterly recriminating against all their colleagues and the organisation that they headed once.

A retired Inspector-General of Police, once bitterly told me that he wishes to forget his wasted years in the police. What a contrast with senior Army officers’ pride in their calling! Police cynicism is further reinforced by a pariah feeling from which officers and men often suffer. They feel that they do not get the social recognition and respect that the importance of the profession demands. Society looks at the policeman not as an individual but as a stereotype. Even when not in uniform or off duty, a police officer is viewed with fear and suspicion and this, in turn, makes him emotionally strained and cynical. This emotional overload causes, as the behavioural scientist Christina Maslach says, “burnout, like an electric wire with too much current flowing through it.

The officer just burns out and emotionally disconnects.” The key dimensions of this response are overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of detachment from the job and a sense of lack of accomplishment. In India, very limited research study has been done on the problem of police burnout and its negative impact.

A research study done by Hanif Qureshi, a senior police officer of the Haryana cadre, along with Eric G. Lambert and others shows that police burnout is linked with poor interaction with citizens, greater use of force, lower job performance, higher problems at home life and increased anger and frustration. The research also stresses that more police personnel are killed by job stress and burnout than by criminals. It is also a fact that the working conditions of the police encourage the formation of a typical police subculture which is permeated with cynicism. It has some distinguishing characteristics.

Normally, the police in our country are extra deferential to people in power and authority and have the habit of saying “yes sir” to everything. The policeman seeks to placate the senior officers by flattery or by rendering service without having any real regard for them. This kind of attitude also prevailed in the past. In Kalidasa’s Shakuntala, the typical name of one of the king’s constables was Januka, meaning one who is always on his knees. A police officer has also myriad duties and responsibilities. However conscientious and committed, he can always be hauled up for some infractions or omissions. As a result, he remains vulnerable to pressure and carries out orders which can be illegal or even immoral. He develops a cynical attitude toward those in authority when asked or advised to follow correct rules and norms in the discharge of his duties as he receives from the same authority unwritten directives to resort to shortcut methods to deal with terrorists, dreaded criminals or political opponents.

Because of frequent public criticism, the police also develop occupational solidarity and form a high-identity cohesive group of their own and see the world as “we” and “they” and feel that In crisis situations, the police can rely on help only from their comrades. They are to stand or fall together. This “we” and “they” syndrome negatively affects positive relations with the communities. This also explains the failure of the police to cultivate “peer pressure” to ensure that police personnel adhere to correct norms of behaviour in their work and operations There are always conscious endeavours to cover up transgressions by colleagues and not to blow the whistle on them.

In America, many police establishments have recognised the growing problem of police cynicism as a human reaction to job-related stress and strain that can invade our attitude just as cancer can invade our bodies. Various measures have been adopted like encouraging officers to adopt an active role in community events to minimise its growth.

In India, there is an imperative need to appreciate and understand the problem of the prevalence of cynicism among sections of police personnel and take well-designed corrective measures. Cynicism is ultimately harmful not only to the individual officer but to the organisation at large and is often a precursor to misconduct and brutality. Some fundamental changes in the working conditions of the police which breed cynicism are called for. Patchwork solutions will not help.