Issue link: https://let.epubxp.com/i/254119
I 've been to a few funerals for officers killed in the line of duty. Many of these officers were killed by suspects or in traffic accidents, or even suffered heart attacks while trying to control a resisting offender. But I've attended two times as many funerals or memorials for officers who have killed themselves. This is not an easy subject to talk about. In law enforcement it is the "elephant in the room" that no one wants to acknowledge or speak about. Instead, the collective attitude seems to be, "Don't look. If we avert our eyes and don't do anything to admit it exists and is a real problem, maybe it will just go away." Like anything positive ever hap- pens when you just pretend there's not a problem and don't take steps to deal with it. Even worse are those administrators who deny there is a prob- lem at all, and refer to officers who have killed themselves as "weak." Some administrators have no policies or programs such as stress reduction, wellness or counseling available to mitigate officer self-inflicted deaths. Item: An officer commits suicide in the parking lot behind police headquarters. Item: A police chief writes an email stating, "These suicides were about personal choices, selfish- ness and weakness," after three of his officers commit suicide in two years. Item: A police officer battling depression shoots himself at the scene of a car burglary in front of his partner and the car's owner. Item: Two officers from the same agency commit suicide within two months. Over the past five years this agency has had four officers take their own lives. Item: A lieutenant who was publicly excoriated after a use of force incident involving a mentally ill subject who died from a fall after he was Tasered commits suicide. The lieutenant had his badge and gun taken away and was removed from his assign- ment. Item: Less than two weeks after a recently retired officer commits suicide, the retired officer who wrote his obituary takes his own life as well. Having survived violent encounters on the streets, only to die at your own hand, is truly a sad statement. The numbers We've all heard that more police officers die by their own hand than are killed in the line of duty. According to the The Badge of Life website, "More cops commit suicide than are killed by felons. In 2011, there were 147 police suicides and 164 line of duty death, 65 of which were by gunfire." The sad incidence of police suicide L E A D E R S H I P B Y K E V I N D A V I S 23 February 2014 Law Enforcement Technology LET_23-24_Police Suicide0214.indd 23 1/24/14 12:33 PM