HOW MANY POLICE SUICIDES?

It's a muddled mess and no one really knows.  We have people claiming it's high, people claiming it's low and some claiming it's no different than any other group.  Much depends on the researcher's agenda. 

A highlight of presentations I have given to public groups and cadet classes have included statements  deemed "credible" by suicide prevention instructors but I found could not be substantiated. 

The problem is, there's no credible data to back any of it up.  And whose fault is that?  Police departments themselves, many of which deliberately conceal or misclassifiy suicides and persuade coroners to go along with it.  

As many as 20 percent of police suicides are misclassified as accidents or "undetermined deaths," found a study by Violanti.  He cites many examples, one of which follows:

     A police officer was found dead in a bed in a rear bedroom.  When he failed to show for work, officers forcibly entered his apartment and found him lying on his bed.  There was a bullet wound to the left side of the head, and the gun was in the officer's left hand.  The officer was lying on his back in bed.  The apartment was locked, there was no sign of forcible entry, and the officer's own gun was found in his hand.  Cause of death:  Undetermined.

BOGUS NUMBERS AND RATES:

In our research, we've found many estimates of annual police suicides.  Unfortunately, this data is either estimation, based on questionable samplings, or predicated on limited, voluntary data submission. 

Poor numbers are worse than no numbers at all.

For a classic example of the debates researchers engage in, go to Appendix B, The NYPD Conundrum.

What CAN we rely on? 

Clearly, police departments have been their own worst enemy by clouding the picture.  More to their discredit is that their has been no effort by major police organizations, including the International Chiefs of Police and the National Police Chief's Association, to mandate conditions for membership that require ethical, accurate reporting of police suicides.

    A great advantage to incorporating a suicide tracking system into the FBI Uniform Crime Report is that an enforcement capability exists.  County and city coroners could be required, under penalty of perjury, to review death certificates of police officers and personally attest to the cause of death.  There will, of course, always be room for fraud, but at least this provides a national database system that is far more reliable than the carnival show we now have. 

SUICIDE "RATES": 

It's not complicated--if you don't have good numbers, any "rates" you come up with are useless. 

     Clearly, much needs to be done to overcome the damage done by law enforcement’s failure to gather together in some type of uniform, mandated reporting system.  It simply must happen if there is any hope of attacking what is, so far, an invisible enemy.

     Or we can merely continue spending money blindly on suicide prevention programs.

      For some interim alternatives, go to