Emotions in action: The self-triggering vigilance of first-responder police officers

Abstract

The dramatic number of police suicides in France since the beginning of 2019 has led the government and police unions to consider the psychosocial risks (PSRs) involved in this sector and the suicide phenomenon as national emergencies. The strong emotional demands associated with first-responder occupations engage emotions from a large spectrum of intensity and valence. To meet these demands, it is in first-responder police officers’ interest that their individual and collective resources be explored, introduced into their awareness, and verbalized. When facing the burden of emotional demands, what resources do police officers have at their disposal? More particularly, how are the training institutions, and the management and Human Resource Management (HRM) professionals contributing to the integration, mobilization, and development of their emotional competencies? This research explores and defines a concept that is absent from the literature on organizational behavior, namely “self- triggering vigilance,” and elucidates the role played by the institutions training the supervisory and management officers in management’s development of work-regulation areas, and of cognitive and physical preparation for action in work situations. Our results highlight the need for HRM and management professionals to recognize the emotional demands, which are PSR factors, involved in the work, as well as to preserve the health of the workforce and intervention safety by allowing police officers to practice and sharpen this indispensable individual and collective resource we call self-triggering vigilance.