Here are some of the best questions for a police officer survey about mental health and wellness, plus tips for making them truly insightful. With Specific, you can generate a complete, conversational survey about this topic in seconds—try it yourself to build a survey instantly.
Best open-ended questions for police officer mental health and wellness surveys
Open-ended questions are perfect for exploring the true feelings and experiences of police officers. They let respondents share their thoughts freely, often surfacing issues and insights you might never uncover with yes/no options. Especially when officers might be struggling with mental health challenges, open-ended prompts help build trust and reveal the context behind their answers.
Can you describe a recent situation at work that affected your mental well-being?
What resources would help you better manage stress and mental health on the job?
In what ways has your role as a police officer influenced your mental health over time?
What barriers, if any, make it hard for you or your colleagues to seek mental health support?
How do you typically cope with work-related stress or trauma?
What changes would you recommend to improve officer wellness in your department?
Can you share an example of when you felt supported regarding mental health at work?
What signs of mental strain do you most commonly notice in yourself or your peers?
How can the department better foster an environment that prioritizes mental wellness?
Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience with mental health as a police officer?
Open-ended questions like these are essential, especially considering that nearly 26% of police officers report current symptoms of mental illness, yet only 17% have sought mental health services in the past year. Giving space for deeper stories can prompt actionable change in departments. [2]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for mental health and wellness surveys
Single-select multiple-choice questions work well when you need quantifiable data or want to get officers talking about tough subjects without the pressure of crafting a long answer. Choosing from a set of concise options can help break the ice, and follow-up questions allow you to probe deeper when something stands out.
Question: How would you rate your current mental wellness?
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Question: Which of these stress management resources have you used in the past year?
Counseling or therapy
Peer support programs
Wellness workshops
None
Other
Question: What is the biggest challenge you face with mental health at work?
Stigma around mental health
Lack of time or resources
Confidentiality concerns
Not sure where to turn
When to follow up with "why?" A follow-up “why?” is key when you want to uncover root causes. For example, if an officer selects “None” for support resources, a well-timed “What has prevented you from using these resources?” can reveal procedural, cultural, or personal barriers—and help leaders understand what needs to change.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always consider “Other” when existing options might not fit every officer. The chance to elaborate in a follow-up often uncovers critical but less common feedback that you’d miss with rigid choices alone.
Should you use an NPS-style question for police officer mental health and wellness?
NPS (Net Promoter Score) asks respondents how likely they are to recommend a service or environment—usually on a scale of 0–10. NPS works well in this context because it quickly gauges overall satisfaction or trust in a wellness program or departmental support system. You can then follow up with “What’s the main reason for your score?” to get actionable insight from both promoters and detractors. Try generating an NPS survey for police officers here if you want to see how this can add value to your data.
The power of follow-up questions
Too many surveys miss out by sticking to surface-level responses. Automated, context-aware follow-ups—like those built into Specific’s AI follow-up questions—bring out the full story every time. AI-powered follow-ups ask smart, relevant questions the instant an officer finishes their initial reply, just as a human interviewer would. That means richer insights, less ambiguity, and far less manual follow-up for your team.
Police officer: "My mental health is okay, but it could be better."
AI follow-up: "What are the main factors keeping your mental health from being as strong as you’d like?"
How many followups to ask? In practice, 2–3 thoughtful follow-ups per key question are usually enough. You can always enable a setting to skip to the next question when you've collected the insight you need. Specific lets you adjust this, so you don’t fatigue respondents or get repetitive answers.
This makes it a conversational survey—the result feels like a natural dialogue, not an interrogation. Officers are far more likely to open up when the flow matches a real conversation.
AI survey analysis is effortless: tools such as AI survey response analysis summarize and categorize open-text answers instantly, allowing you to search, filter, and spot themes at a glance—even with hundreds of responses.
Automated AI follow-ups are still new, and seeing them in action can be eye-opening—give our survey generator a spin and notice how your questions come to life.
How to write powerful prompts for ChatGPT and AI survey tools
Want to generate excellent questions yourself? The secret is in the prompt. Here’s a simple base prompt to start with:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Police Officer survey about Mental Health And Wellness.
AI performs even better when you add extra context about your goal, the audience, or pain points. For example:
I am a mental health coordinator at a police department. Our goal is to uncover barriers to accessing support and ideas for improving officer wellness. Suggest 10 open-ended questions for a survey of our officers about mental health and wellness.
To structure your survey, ask AI to organize questions:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
After reviewing the categories, you can focus on core areas by prompting:
Generate 10 questions for the categories: Coping Strategies, Department Resources, and Barriers to Support.
This iterative approach brings out the depth you want for AI-powered conversational surveys.
What makes a conversational survey different?
“Conversational surveys” powered by AI feel just like chat—natural, adaptive, never robotic. Compare this experience:
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Survey with Specific |
|---|---|
Manual question writing and logic setup | Describe your survey and get questions instantly |
Static list of questions | Dynamically adjusted based on answers |
Time-consuming to analyze open responses | Automatic AI-driven analysis and summaries |
Follow-ups require extra rounds or interviews | Smart follow-ups happen in real time, conversationally |
Why use AI for police officer surveys? Because the stakes are high: nearly a quarter of officers experience PTSD and significant numbers deal with depression and substance abuse. [1] With so much unspoken nuance, only a conversational, AI-assisted approach can uncover what’s really important, both at scale and in detail. If you want a more tailored approach, try our AI survey generator or check out our guide on how to create a police officer mental health survey for more.
Specific delivers the best user experience for conversational, AI-driven surveys, making the feedback process not just fast—but genuinely engaging, insightful, and even enjoyable for officers and admin alike.
See this mental health and wellness survey example now
See how a conversational police officer mental health and wellness survey can elevate the insights you capture—get started and make your feedback process more natural, actionable, and complete.