Policing is one of the most stressful jobs, and the buildup of years of emotional stress left untreated will likely lead to a police officer’s breaking point. This can have an enormous impact on the officer’s ability to function and possibly create thoughts of suicide. Many people only consider life-changing events affecting a police officer when looking for risk factors of suicide; they don’t think of smaller ongoing issues (Cuadro, 2019). Suicide ideation is the thought of killing oneself, regardless of the amount of detail in the plan, time spent thinking about one’s death, or how one plans their death. Depression, alcohol use, social support, marital status, and PTSD are factors of predicting suicidal ideation (Colevins-Tumlin, 2017). Researchers found an association between depression, suicidal ideation, and sleep problems causing an increase in suicide ideation. To protect the family members or alleviate their department of any negative stigma related to suicide, many law enforcement agencies under report or misclassify police suicides (Colevins-Tumlin, 2017).
A study of law enforcement suicides found 64% of police suicides came as a surprise to family members and colleagues (Colevins-Tumlin, 2017). Nearly half of the police officers who died by suicide had at least one current or past behavioral health diagnosis, the most common being substance abuse or anxiety (US DOJ LEMHWA, 2019). Mental health experts have also found a strong relationship between suicide and PTSD/depression (Cuadro, 2019). Suicide ideation is ten times greater when officers used alcohol and have symptoms of PTSD (Price, 2017 & Violanti et al., 2011). A warning sign before suicidal ideation is the presence of depression, substance abuse, and PTSD. There are several significant factors in law enforcement suicide, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, marital discord, health concerns, and substance abuse. For approximately 85% of all law enforcement suicides, alcohol abuse is present (Gibson, 2020). Contrary to popular belief, untreated depression, and not critical incidents and work stressors, lead to police suicide (Haecker, 2017).
The risk for suicide is almost five times more likely when an officer has marital problems, seven times more likely if an officer is suspended as a result of discipline from their job, and 22 times more likely when both elements are present (Tessieri-Hochuli, 2018). An essential aspect of committing suicide is the individual must be mentally prepared to die, and usually, they plan their death and contemplate it for some time (Cuadro, 2019). Law enforcement officers who commit suicide use a firearm to end their life approximately 90% of the time. Over the last several years, more police officers have lost their lives to suicide than in the line of duty, and 25% of officers have experienced suicidal thoughts during their careers (Gibson, 2020). Due to a lack of support, retired police officers have a higher suicide rate than active police officers (Haecker, 2017). Studies have found that most individuals who attempted and completed suicide had contact with a mental health service within 90 days of the incident. As many police departments have found, suicide is not an isolated event, as once there is one suicide in an agency, others may follow (US DOJ LEMHWA, 2019). Although the number of police officer suicides continues to grow, researchers found that not every suicide is successfully committed; there are as many as 25 suicide attempts (US DOJ, 2017).
Police departments should implement suicide prevention training and openly talk about suicide to help break the stigma of seeking help. Departments can encourage topics such as depression, suicide, and suicide ideation during roll calls, briefings, and staff meetings, and other training (Colevins-Tumlin, 2017). Implementing policies to create a peer-support program, Employee Assistance Program (EAP) or Department behavioral health team for counseling, allowing for or requiring time off following officer-involved shootings, critical incidents, and other traumatic events, and assist officers going through personal issues by making accommodations without the fear of retaliation or ridicule (Colevins-Tumlin, 2017).