The goal of The Badge of Life Psychological Survival for Police officers is a mental health and suicide prevention program to offer a new way of addressing police suicides.  Posttraumatic stress (PTSD) in law enforcement is a bigger problem than ever.  It is a program designed for both American and Canadian law enforcement agencies. Everyone wants to know, “How many police suicides are there?”  Police suicide numbers are unknown. Police suicide rates and yearly police suicide statistics are unknown.  We warn you to beware of numbers and statistics being given out on police suicide rates and statistics.

John M. Violanti, PhD is a consultant for the Badge of Life Police Psychological Survival Program,

An important resource in setting up your program is the Peer Support Officer.  The California Peer Support Association offers training and seminars.

John M. Violanti, PhD has endorsed the Badge of Life Police Suicide Prevention Program

It is time to change from just "suicide prevention" to "mental health for police officers."  This means psychological survival for law enforcement.  Why are police suicides always a "surprise?"  Canadian Law enforcement suicides are of concern to us also.

We are tracking the number of police suicides in 2008 from news reports only.  The number of police suicides in 2007 and before are unknown.  Law enforcement needs a national system for collecting police suicide data.  Too many police suicides are unreported or misreported as “accidental” or “unknown cause.”  The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), large agencies like the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and unions like the California Association of Highway Patrolmen (CAHP) can play an instrumental role in lobbying for a central police suicide data base in the FBI Uniform Crime Report.  Only if we have accurate reporting of numbers can we have accurate police suicide rates.

At the core of the Badge of Life Psychological Survival for Police officers program is the “Annual Mental Health Prescription.”  This is a dramatic new concept for police departments to encourage police officers to begin self-care and be prepared for PTSD before it happens.

Police Retirees are an important part of our program of police suicide prevention, particularly in police academies.  Law enforcement retirees are an untapped resource and can be valuable in well structured program like the Badge of Life.

Peer Support Officers play an important role in the Badge of Life suicide prevention program.  Peer Support Officers are available to refer officers on to professional help and to lead training at the squad level.  Peer support officers also play a role in police academy suicide prevention training.

We believe in training officers in “Mental Health,” not just “Suicide Prevention.”  In spite of well-established police suicide prevention programs, departments like Los Angeles Police Department and San Diego Police Department continue to experience problems with officers committing suicide.

We beleive our program can reduce police suicides by 75% in ten years.

The contents of this website include:

1.  An Introduction of the Badge of Life staff

2.  Our Goals

3.  Myths about police suicide

4.  The Lack of Data, rates and Numbers

5.  How to start your own police suicide prevention program

6.  What is “The Mental Health Prescription” for police officers?

7.  Academy mental health training/suicide prevention using retirees and peer support officers.

8.  Police retirees and suicide prevention

9.  Police suicides in 2008

10.  How to contact “The Badge of Life.”

11.  Reviews of books on Police PTSD and Trauma

12.  Why change your suicide prevention plan?