Aim: Police work makes a variety of demands on policemen during daily work routine and is associated with events involving considerable mental stress. In the present study police officers were questioned as to their personal assessment of work-related stress situations and their individual ability to cope. The answers were analysed in the context of workrelated behaviour and experience patterns. Collective and Methods: A battery of questionnaires (AVEM, SVF, PEBA) was filled in by 83 police officers. The test persons were classified in one of four different work-related patterns of behaviour and experience (AVEM: Occupational Stress and Coping Inventory) with a distribution: A 18.4 %, B 22.4 %, G 27.6 %, and S 31.6 %. Results: Statistical analysis revealed enormous differences in the individual ability to cope in police officers with different workrelated patterns of behaviour and experience (AVEM). There exists a good correlation between negative and positive stress accomplishments, PEBA and AVEM categories. Conclusions: Medical prevention should concentrate on increasing the ability of the individual police officer to cope with stress situations.