A structured questionnaire was distributed to all teachers and police officers in Dewitt, N.Y., a town with a population of 31,000 people predominantly from the upper-middle and upper classes. Stress was defined as the perceived imbalance between societal demands and response capability. Twenty-five of 32 police officers and 31 of 80 teachers returned questionnaires. The two groups were demographically similar, except for age, education, sex, salary, and length of time employed. Police officers and teachers were compared for job stress, nonjob stress, job stressors, life stressors, and job dissatisfaction. Results showed that police officers demonstrated more on-the-job stress than teachers, but the relation between the two groups and off-the-job stress was not significant. Police officers also demonstrated a higher level of stressor experience than teachers for all stressor types. For police officers, on-the-job stress tended to be related to job stressors and job dissatisfaction; off-the-job stress appeared to be related to job dissatisfaction. For teachers, off-the-job stress was not apparently related to the measured stressors. Overall, police officers demonstrated higher levels of stress on the job and reported a higher number of stressors in their lives than teachers. Job stressors seemed to be the key to understanding police officer job stress, while life stressors appeared to be more related to teacher job stress. 27 references, 7 tables.