Vol. 7 No. 1 Cheyenne (Jarvis) Jones • 7 undercover officers endure amounts of stress and anxiety that are common and normal for the line of work, but rarely are removed from undercover operations due to mental health concerns (2006). While that is entirely valid, Curran notes that “undercover work has been identified as one of the most stress-inducing tasks a police officer can engage in, with undercover drug investigations being one of the most stressful assignments” (2021, p. 257). BothMiller and Curran do agree, however, that the most common and uniform stressor in undercover policing is the fear of discovery (Miller, 2006; Curran, 2021). This fear can reasonably account for the anxiety many undercover officers feel during the operation, but it can also contribute to the development of paranoia and other serious psychological conditions. Band and Sheehan noted many other stressors that can also come into play while undercover; these include but are not limited to lack of management commitment or support, personal problems, interagency cooperation, and development of personal relationships with target(s) (1999). It is evident even now that there are a significant number of stressors that come into play during an undercover operation. While these stressors can certainly lead to serious psychological effects, one must note that such results are not guaranteed. Two specific stressors that affect undercover officers uniquely are loss of identity and reintegration into society. Loss of identity can lead to a breakdown of personal values and beliefs as well as create an overidentification with the target/target group (Band & Sheehan, 1999). This loss of self can be encouraged by the isolation from undercover operations and the need to conform to the profile of the target. The longer an officer is undercover in a single role, the greater risk there is that they lose their sense of self and become more like the very thing they are pretending to be (Marx, 1982). Girodo et. al. conducted a fascinating study regarding a possible link between undercover operations and dissociative identity disorder [DID]. This study concluded: …Predispositions to dissociative experiences, private mental rehearsals of having a false persona, leading to a fabricated identity that experiences some constraint from being expressed openly—these appear to make it more likely that an alter identity will surface in an undercover agent (2002, p.642). This study indicates how severe an undercover officer’s loss of identity can become. Another study by Farkas found that 17% of undercover officers reported extreme personal changes after the completion of their undercover operation. Within that 17%, however, only 12% indicated that the change was negative (1986). Charlie Fuller developed the “Duck Theory” to explain the loss of identity and the challenges relating to undercover operations. This theory is defined as follows: They want you to dress like a duck, talk like a duck, act like a duck, deal with ducks...and it's very easy, if you’re not careful, to become a
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