Officer cynicism -- defined by Niederhoffer as 'a loss of faith in people, of enthusiasm for the higher ideals of police work, and of pride and integrity' -- was measured by the Police Cynicism Index, which categorized the officers as cynical or not cynical. The mode of officer defense style was measured by the Revised Repression-Sensitization (R-S) Scale, which is a self-report instrument composed of items from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The repressive defense style tends to be nonreactive to stressful stimuli, and the sensitizing defense style is highly reactive to stressful stimuli, tending toward overexcitement and activity as a means of dealing with stress. Officers who scored low on cynicism tended to have a repressive defense style, and those who scored high on cynicism tended to have a sensitizing defense style. There was no significant correlation between R-S scores and any of the officer demographic variables. The R-S Scale could be used to screen out applicants who would become cynical toward police work over time. 6 data tables and 29 references.