The activity’s emotional factor: An analysis of "blind spots" to improve QLWC. Findings of immersion in a criminal investigation unit in France[Le facteur émotionnel de l’activité : Analyser les « angles morts » pour améliorer la QVCT. Bilan d’une recherche immersive en Police Judiciaire française]

The present research, conducted in collaboration with the Research Center of the National Police Agency (Centre de Recherche de l'École Nationale Supérieure de la Police – CR ENSP), aims to evaluate the emotional risks involved in professional police activity, and to assess the processes of (dys)regulation of emotions implemented by police officers and police collectives, with the objective of enhancing their Quality of Life and Working Conditions (QLWC). While many studies have addressed the issue of emotional management in recent decades, little research has been published on the regulation of emotions in the field of Human Resource Management (HRM) for public bodies, and in "extreme" professional environments, i.e. High Reliability Organizations (HRO). An ethnographic and qualitative study was conducted during the spring of 2021 within the Territorial Division of the Criminal Investigation Police (Direction Territoriale de la Police Judiciaire – DTPJ) located in a medium-sized French city. Seven police units were observed in the course of this study: technical and scientific unit, operational cyber investigations, financial crimes unit, major crimes unit, organized crime unit, narcotics unit, and anti-terrorist investigations. This research, based on the researcher's immersion in police departments for 26.5 days and nights from May to June 2021, as well as 20 individual and focus-groups interviews, analyzes the emotions experienced by police officers, their emotional (dys)regulation practices at the individual, collective and organizational levels, as well as their relationship to meaning in their work. This research highlights the importance of two key emotions that constitute "blind spots" of police work: interest and frustration. As a consequence of these "blind spots", police officers furnish "invisible" and undiscussed work on the affects related to their activity as a whole. This type of cross-disciplinary research enables researchers and practitioners to better understand the prevention of psychosocial risks (PSR) and to envision measures to enhance the QLWC for police.