As condições de trabalho na perspectiva dos agentes de polícia civil em delegacias distritais na cidade do Natal

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation is the study of working conditions of civil police officers at district police stations in Natal, observing their narratives in order to understand a fraction of their work routine and how it affects their mental health. In order to work on these narratives, this research used the qualitative method through content analysis. To achieve this, two police stations from different regions were selected, one in the North region and one in the South region, by convenience sampling the population by using the snowball technique. This technique is generally used in research where the targeted population is difficult to access, as well as in studies involving delicate topics. It was through research seeds that the researcher had access to the interviewees. The discussions were guided by a semi-structured script for the development of dialogues, although other issues were included due to the interest and emphasis that the policemen gave in each police unit studied. As for the routine profile of the police stations, a lot of similarity was detected with regards to the nature of the work itself. However, the police officers of each unit showed notorious disparities when they reported on the reality experienced in relation to the issue observed by this research. Therefore, taking into account public security characteristics in a generic perspective, specificities related to the work format of the chosen police stations and subjective questions captured from the police officers' statements, it was possible to detect distinctive team profiles for each police station, as well as to observe diametrically opposed characteristics in terms of the police officers' satisfaction with working conditions in their respective police stations, although considering a number of four police officers per unit.