BACKGROUND: Requests for police statements regarding a patient's medical condition or injuries are common. A lack of training in their preparation, coupled with ignorance as to their fate, combine to make the task one which is generally viewed as a necessary paperwork evil. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to provide practical guidelines and a suggested format for use when preparing a police statement. DISCUSSION: Police statements prepared by medical practitioners are important documents whose intended audience is overwhelmingly nonmedical. A small time investment made in the preparation of a concise, objective report in language likely to be understood by the lay person will assist the courts in understanding complex medical issues and may obviate the need for the doctor to appear in court as a witness. A structured statement 'proforma' can be readily customised and will both reduce time in preparation of reports and serve as a prompt for inclusion of essential details. (+info)
Effects of an intensive street-level police intervention on syringe exchange program use in Philadelphia, PA.
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Repeated measurements and mixed-effects models were used to analyze the effects of an intensive long-term street-level police intervention on syringe exchange program use. Utilization data for 9 months before and after the beginning of the intervention were analyzed. Use fell across all categories and time periods studied, with significant declines in use among total participants, male participants, and Black participants. Declines in use among Black and male participants were much more pronounced than decreases among White and female participants. (+info)
"Intuitive" lie detection of children's deception by law enforcement officials and university students.
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Adults' ability to detect children's deception was examined. Police officers, customs officers, and university students attempted to differentiate between children who lied or told the truth about a transgression. When children were simply questioned about the event (Experiment 1), the adult groups could not distinguish between lie-tellers and truth-tellers. However, participants were more accurate when the children had participated in moral reasoning tasks (Experiment 2) or promised to tell the truth (Experiment 3) before being interviewed. Additional exposure to the children did not affect accuracy (Experiment 4). Customs officers were more certain about their judgments than other groups, but no more accurate. Overall, adults have a limited ability to identify children's deception, regardless of their experience with lie detection. (+info)
Stress in the Norwegian police service.
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BACKGROUND: High levels of stress have been attributed to the conditions of police work, but there is little empirical evidence for this. AIMS: To develop a new instrument to measure job stress in the police; to assess the most severe and frequent police stressors; to compare levels of stress according to the demographic and organizational factors; and to study stress in relation to personality traits, work locus of control and coping strategies. METHODS: A comprehensive nationwide questionnaire survey of 3272 Norwegian police at all hierarchical levels, including the Norwegian Police Stress Survey (NPSS), the Job Stress Survey, the Basic Character Inventory, the Work Locus of Control Scale, and the Coping Strategies Scale. RESULTS: Work injuries were appraised as the most stressful but least frequent stressor and job pressure was reported the least severe but most frequent stressor. Females experienced job stressors less frequently, but appraised them as more severe than men did. Older police officers reported more job pressure severity and fewer work injuries. The police in districts where peer support was planned but not implemented, and who worked in districts with more than 50,000 inhabitants, perceived the lack of support more severely than others. The correlations between stress and personality traits, work locus of control, and coping were moderate. CONCLUSIONS: The NPSS captures police-specific stressors that are not adequately measured by global stress instruments. The study of stress in police work should preferably involve a nationwide use of police-specific stress instruments. (+info)
Correlates of physical activity among middle-aged Finnish male police officers.
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BACKGROUND: Few studies exist on adherence to exercise within specific occupational groups. AIMS: This study aimed at identifying factors explaining leisure-time physical activity among middle-aged Finnish police officers. METHODS: Middle-aged police officers (n = 103) participated in the study in 1981 and 1996. Frequency of and adherence to leisure-time physical activity and fitness were assessed. RESULTS: The factor 'enjoyment' was the most powerful determinant for both physical activity and fitness, but all the factors studied accounted for only 10% of the variability. Leisure-time physical activity in 1981 correlated significantly with leisure-time physical activity in 1996. CONCLUSIONS: The physical activity of the middle-aged police officers can be in part predicted from their physical activity in early adulthood. Enjoyment related to physical activity seems to be important with respect to enhancing adherence. Perhaps, being fit increases the feeling of enjoyment during exercise. (+info)
Jacobson v Massachusetts at 100 years: police power and civil liberties in tension.
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A century ago, the US Supreme Court in Jacobson v Massachusetts upheld the exercise of the police power to protect the public's health. Despite intervening scientific and legal advances, public health practitioners still struggle with Jacobson's basic tension between individual liberty and the common good. In affirming Massachusetts' compulsory vaccination law, the Court established a floor of constitutional protections that consists of 4 standards: necessity, reasonable means, proportionality, and harm avoidance. Under Jacobson, the courts are to support public health matters insofar as these standards are respected. If the Court today were to decide Jacobson once again, the analysis would likely differ--to account for developments in constitutional law--but the outcome would certainly reaffirm the basic power of government to safeguard the public's health. (+info)
Delay in ambulance dispatch to road accidents.
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When a road accident occurs, the police communications officer, or 911 operator, generally receives the first call. If the caller reports injuries, the emergency medical services dispatcher is notified immediately; but if the caller is uncertain of injuries, the operator may wait. Most often an ambulance is not needed. However, in nearly 20% of fatal road accidents in Missouri, waiting for confirmation of need resulted in a delay of 5 minutes or more in the dispatch of an ambulance. (+info)
A description of a peer-run supervised injection site for injection drug users.
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Owing to the ongoing health crisis among injection drug users in Vancouver, Canada, there have been repeated calls for the establishment of supervised injection sites (SIS) since the early 1990s. In April 2003, a group of advocates and drug users opened an unsanctioned SIS in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The "327 SIS" operated for 184 days. During the operation of the SIS, volunteers supervised over 3,000 injections by a high-risk injection drug using population. The SIS provided a sterile environment for injection drug use without measured negative consequences and demonstrated the feasibility of a peer-driven low-threshold SIS. (+info)