Streets of Serbia have been full of citizens for the last eight months: students, policemen, pensioners, workers and some politicians. They walk, sometimes run, take more than 10.000 steps every day, which has been proven to have a positive effect on cardiovascular health.
Weather conditions are not always suitable for such exercises, especially in the last two months when layered clothing does not help as in winter. We are all exposed to the risk of sunstroke and heatstroke when the temperature reaches over 40 degrees Celsius on the asphalt these days, and especially our fellow citizens on the other side of the barricades, policemen in bulletproof vests, with helmets, masks pulled over their faces and under full equipment for breaking up demonstrations, but also those in summer uniform. Without the opportunity to cool down, rest, drink water or remove part of their equipment, they are exposed to the risk of dehydration, heat exhaustion, and even heatstroke - a condition that can lead to loss of consciousness, organ damage, and even death.
Therefore, the question arises - are protection protocols provided for these risks? Are cooling vests, sensors, tactical force rotations in the field being used? Is there health monitoring of police officers on the street? Is the State, which has been called out by the government and collapsed, take care of the law and order bodies in a professional way, or is health here also a matter of personal endurance and resourcefulness, like for all other citizens?
The police these days are talked about exclusively as a means of force. They either criticize them for beating or defend them for "just doing their job". In both cases, the health of people in uniform is rarely discussed, not only physical, but also mental and social. Everyone is silent about this, even though these people, when they go to their families, neighborhood, community in which they live after work, are left with consequences that the uniform cannot prevent and heal.
PHYSICAL EXHAUSTMENT ACUTE DANGER AND CHRONIC STRESS
Medically speaking, under the conditions and equipment in which the police work these days, the body enters a state of temperature imbalance. The full set of equipment - bulletproof vest, protectors, helmet, shield - may protect against a stone or a bottle, but at the same time it insulates from one's own sweat and natural cooling. The body cannot breathe. Sweat does not evaporate. The internal temperature rises. The heart starts to beat faster. Consciousness is clouded and legs go numb. When the body temperature exceeds a critical point and the brain begins to fail, heat stroke occurs. People lose consciousness, collapse, enter a coma. This condition can leave lasting effects on the kidneys, brain, heart, and sometimes cause death. It has already happened in the military, in fire brigades, in the police all over the world.
From what can be seen, the equipment used to break up Serbian police demonstrations - body armor with minimal ventilation, integrated knee and elbow pads, helmets with face shields - looks like the usual equipment of Eastern European manufacturers. On the European and global market, there is high-tech equipment for units exposed to such conditions, such as cooled vests with a built-in rehydration system made of sweat-permeable materials, body temperature monitoring sensors connected to automated signal systems to replace manpower on the street. It is not known if this is used by the police in Serbia or if it is in storage together with LRAD equipment.
When chronic physical effects are added to the effects of the heat: back pain, joint injuries, skin irritation and loss of sensation in the hands and feet from shields and body armor, constant fatigue, we have a large number of civil servants in Serbia who are exposed to serious and cumulative physical wear and tear. Serbia has ratified Convention 155 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the Government of the Republic of Serbia is obliged to ensure the protection of workers, including the police, from health risks at the workplace.
There is every chance that our police officers are left without protection, prevention and support and, like other citizens, they are only expendable means for maintaining the government.
PSYCHOLOGICAL PRESSURE SILENCE AFTER WHISTLES AND VUVUZELS
Police work is more emotionally demanding than it appears from the outside. In recent months, police officers have been exposed to shouting, aggression, uncertainty and the crowd against which they have to act at the same time.
Interventions against citizens, especially when they are peaceful and unarmed (students, professors, doctors, pensioners, mothers and children), can leave psychological consequences that are not easily visible. It is possible for a moral conflict to arise, which is manifested through a feeling of inner discomfort. In professional literature, this is called a moral violation - a situation when an individual acts against his own sense of rightness. Shame, guilt, emotional numbing, anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts are already visible consequences of policemen engaged in such "actions" in the world.
Again, the same question arises: do police officers have access to psychological support? Does anyone ask them how they are after they "finish the job"? Or is vulnerability interpreted as a weakness that must be silenced?
SOCIAL ISOLATION BETWEEN TWO PARTIES
Police officers behind visors and with phantoms on, hide from citizens, recognition, but also from their own conscience and responsibility. The mask and uniform without a name carry strong symbolism, the face is hidden, but the personality is also erased. They are not on the street and in the workplace as citizens, but as tools, without character, doing as they are told. But it is not only the police officers who are personally and professionally unemancipated, as we could see during the visit of the President of the Republic and the Minister of Health to intensive care in the company of twenty journalists and doctors, the head of the department who let them in.
In this environment, the police officer is easily alienated. Citizens, neighbors, the community in which he lives perceive him as an extended arm of political power, and the government that is the bearer of that power does not provide him with a sense of belonging or support. Withdrawal, problems in the family, the inability to talk openly about work is no longer just a matter of mental health, but of social exclusion that leads to permanent marginalization through internal and external distance. The policeman doesn't belong anywhere anymore.
OCCUPATIONAL MEDICINE
In all these risks for police officers - physical, psychological and social - we wonder where the role of occupational medicine doctors is? These are experts who should assess risks in the field, suggest protective measures, warn when conditions become unsafe and monitor the long-term health of employees. Their role is not only bureaucratic. They should be independent professionals who protect the working man - even when the system does not see him. Are occupational physicians involved in operational planning? Does anyone listen to them? If not - what does that say about how seriously the state takes the health of its employees?
Taking care of police officers' health does not mean ignoring their responsibility. On the contrary, it forces us to ask what kind of country it is that uses people as a shield, and does not ask how they are when the shield falls. If we don't know the conditions under which police officers work, if we don't check whether they receive medical, psychological and social support, if we don't ask who protects them while they are "protecting order", then even the order that defends itself is not sustainable. Nor is he healthy. Nor is it fair.
