This study was developed aiming to identify occupational stress factors and to investigate the ways the policemen use to deal with stress. Forty policemen from a public safety Police Station participated as volunteers. The instrument was a semi-structured interview with four questions. After content analysis, 222 answers on occupational stressors were obtained and they were classified in 18 categories related to work characteristics, relationship with colleagues and superiors, the police negative image by society and media, and lack of legal and governmental support to the police work. About strategies used to deal with stress, there were 86 different answers, and the majority uses the symptoms management. A professional intervention is suggested, both in the work structure and environment, as in training the policemen in order to optimize the way to deal with work stress factors.
Stress; Coping; Civil policemen
