HOW CAN WE ALL HELP PREVENT POLICE OFFICER SUICIDES ?
/How can WE ALL help prevent police officer suicides?
By: Sgt. Dave Kryger, Retired HTPD, NYPD and SWAT Crisis Negotiator
We know of nine suicides in the NYPD so far this year. One suicide is one too many. This is not just an NYPD problem; this is a police officer problem nationwide. In the last three years, over 400 police officers have committed suicide nationwide. There are many variables that play into these officers who take their own lives, and I will discuss some of them later on in the article. Some of the issues, just to name a few, are job-related, personal, health, financial, marital and the overall stress of trying to fix everyone else’s problems while ignoring their own. Police officers have always been taught that you need to be tough, you need to be strong and while that is true in some circumstances, what we’re NOT taught enough is that it is OK to NOT be tough, to NOT be strong, when THEY need help. It is human to have moments of weakness, to be sad, to be in despair, however, how police officers deal with those moments of weakness, sadness and despair is one of the keys to preventing suicide.
While it is true that suicides occur in many different professions, why is it more prevalent in law enforcement? In part, it is due to the nature of the job, the things that we see, the things that we sometimes have to deal with, the reality of dead bodies, domestic violence, serious and/or fatal auto accidents, physical disputes, dead kids (especially when having kids of their own) etc. These are things that most people only see on TV, and after having dealt with all of these issues for 25 years myself, I can personally say that if you are fortunate enough to only witness these types of incidents on television, then you are indeed fortunate.
At the beginning of every police officer’s tour, they attend a briefing or roll call in which they are given their assignments for the day. Police officers are then tasked with handling all of these jobs, but then at the end of the day, other than locker room talk, there is no debrief to discuss what they saw, no outlet to the tragedies, the dead kid, the marital discord that they tried to resolve, everyone else’s problems that they fixed on their tour that day. Additionally, it is not socially acceptable to say to another cop, “Wow, that dead kid really screwed me up today.” The norm is that the officer just internalizes those feelings, goes about the rest of his/her day and comes back for another tour, only to deal with some of these same jobs, day after day. Now, consider the impact on any human being who deals with these types of incidents for a period of 20-30 years. Police officers are expected to be superheroes, priests, sounding boards, marriage counselors, parents and so much more, including preventing other people from committing suicide.
So now that you know the types of jobs that police officers must handle, you may ask, why would one want to take this job and put themselves at risk for depression or suicide? The answer is a multitude of reasons. Some of it is tradition, as some of their family members have been police officers for generations and they wanted to be a part of that pride. Some took the job for the cliché of just wanting to help others. Looking back, some of it is also the influential media. Twenty or thirty years ago, the media & Hollywood glorified police officers when society loved the police. Police officers were heroes on shows like NYPD Blue, Third Watch and Law and Order. I will even go so far back as Hill Street Blues. These shows glorified cops and showed police officers mostly saving lives, solving cases and conducting heroic acts. Some of these shows did show some of the stress and the occasional officer in despair, but not enough. After all, would that have made for good television?
The reality is, that was just a snippet of what police officers do, what they see and how they feel. They never really show the true drudgery of the job and the after affects, the emotional and physical toll that it takes on a police officer. They didn’t show the police officer missing most of his or her family events or their kid’s sports or school events. They don’t show the missed major holidays at home with the family, or the police officer eating dinner on Christmas at noon so he/she can get to work by 4 p.m. and miss the rest of the day with family. They don’t show the police officer who worked a shift and had to stay over at work to help another person‘s family get through the death of a loved one or an arrest for a violent domestic assault and as a result that officer not getting home in time for their own kid’s birthday party. They don’t show the police officer working the mandatory 60 to 70 hours a week to cover the staffing shortages because a specific group wants to protest and the officer is ordered to be present to maintain order. To be clear, not every officer is forced to work those long hours, and some do work for the overtime, but it all plays into an officer’s mental health and well-being. They don’t show you that a police officer's pay in United States of America on average is nominal and while there are exceptions where certain police officers will do well financially, they are the anomaly.
Compound the aforementioned with today’s media and society quickly scrutinizing a police officer’s every move and only playing part of a video that shows one side of a police-involved incident. Add in a supervisor who berates a subordinate, politics, and throw in some overzealous prosecutors/attorneys who are looking to advance their careers on the backs of prosecuting a police officer (such as seen in Baltimore). They all swing on a pendulum, sometimes the pendulum is on your side and sometimes it is not. Today the pendulum has swung to the opposite side. While I believe this is only temporary, it does not bode well for the officer on the street who is just trying to do his or her job. When everyone with a cellphone camera is trying to taunt police officers, while they are harassing police officers while they are trying to make police officers the next YouTube sensation in order that they may cash in on a frivolous lawsuit, combined with the anti-police rhetoric that has been drummed up over the past 10 years in this country, it is no wonder that police officers are caving in to the stress. This just adds to what police officers must endure.
Years ago, you were expected to be tough and deal with it and internalize it all and then at the end of your tour you would go have a couple of beers with the boys and girls and that should make it all better. Those days are long gone, and that is not the answer. While most departments do offer mental health services for officers who are struggling, the stigma is if you report to those services, for fear of potential litigation by placing an officer back on the street, that officer is at risk to being sidelined. At that point the officer is now labeled and may never see any sort of police street-related duties. The job will now perceive you as a risk and you could potentially lose your detail or even your job.
So knowing all of this, what can be done to help to prevent suicides by police officers? I don’t profess to have the final answer, but in part, I can tell you that it starts in the police academy. From day one, police officers need to be taught at least once a week until they graduate that while they are going to deal with these incidents, it is important that they do not internalize them and that they need a safe, healthy outlet with someone they can speak to about these issues so that they can work past them. These mental health services need to be conspicuously posted, strenuously encouraged, yet discreetly handled. Police officers need to know that there is somewhere they can go that is NOT job-related and that they can speak to someone without fear of reprisal or losing their gun, their detail or their job. There are close to 800,000 police officers in the United States. It is more than likely that if you are reading this article, then you know someone who is a police officer and it is your responsibility to look out for police officers, too. If you are a civilian and you have a police officer friend or family member and you see a change in that police officer’s behavior, dress, demeanor, a negative pattern of behavior, the giving away of personal belongings, anything that may indicate that something is wrong, it is YOUR responsibility to try to get them help. We need to do this together and pull in all resources. Keep in mind that not everyone who is contemplating suicide will outwardly display these changes in behavior patterns, however, when they are exhibited, it is important to take proactive steps to help get these officers the assistance that they need, discreetly and imminently. For years it has been perceived that asking for help is a sign of weakness, but the reality is just the opposite. It takes more strength to ask for help than it does to take an easy way out of a difficult situation. The fear of being stigmatized prevents many officers from asking for help.
When officer suicides occur, many look for someone to blame. While there may be some blame in some instances, let’s put that aside right now and focus on PREVENTION. If we are serious about trying to prevent these suicides from occurring, WE need to start by doing two things,
1. We all need to look out for each other - friends, family, coworkers etc. When you see a police officer in despair it is all of our responsibility to reach out.
2. We need to eliminate the “ASKING FOR HELP MAKES YOU WEAK” stigma. This stigma needs to end NOW. Police officers need to know that they have REALISTIC approval from the job and their peers to seek assistance, otherwise, they never will.
On a final note, I personally know people who have committed suicide and some who have attempted suicide. What I can say of those who attempted, they are still here with us, however, this was due to either intervention by someone who cared or the suicidal person reaching out themselves. Either way lives were saved. Do not let another police officer go it alone.
