Suicide among officers has been the topic of much speculation (Ellison 2004). Unfortunately, much of this speculation has been based as much on ”received wisdom” and myth as on evidence. Even the research evidence that is available tends to be methodologically flawed and frequently contradictory. For example, several studies have seemed to show that, compared with other occupations and with the general public, police officers are especially prone to kill themselves. Kroes (1976) believes that officers are much more likely to die by their own hands than to be killed by others. Violanti (1996) puts the risk as twice as high.
Studies vary in their contentions about the rate of police suicide relative to those in other occupations. Gurlanick (1963) found that police have the highest rates of all professions, whereas Kroes (1976) found that police were less likely to kill themselves than laborers and lumbermen but somewhat more likely to do so than physicians. In contrast, Ivanoff (1994) found that physicians, dentists, and entrepreneurs have higher rates of suicide than police. (Ivanoff noted that people in these other professions serve the public and none regularly carry guns.) Still other studies have found suicide rates among police to be surpassed by rates among self-employed manufacturing managers (Labovita and Hagedorn 1971) or by rates among laborers and pressmen (Richard and Fell 1975).
As with most studies of policing, much of the data come from large agencies. Here we find wide discrepancies. Rates range from 15.5 per 100,000 in the New York Police Department for the years from 1990 to 1998 to 35.7 per 100,000 in the San Diego Police department during the same years. In 1998-1999, the U.S. Customs Service recorded a rate of 45.6 per 100,000. The rate for the general public in the United States in the years 1995-1996 was 11.8 per 100,000; this included men and women of all ages. However, the rate for the Caucasian men age twenty to sixty during this time frame was 15 to 25 per 100,000 (Campion 2001). Because most of the officers are healthy, white (81%), working-aged men (89%) (Aamodt and Stalkner 2001; Bergen, Deusch, and Best 2001), this is the most appropriate comparison group. However, even this group (Caucasian men ages twenty to sixty) presents a problem for comparison: Most do not have the officer’s easy access to firearms, which are more likely to be lethal than many other methods of attempting suicide. Several studies have suggested a connection between availability of guns and suicide (Lester 1987; Killias 1993).
Aamodt and Stalkner’s (2001) statistical analysis of suicide data demonstrates that differences between law enforcement personnel and the general public have not only been reduced, but have changed direction. Stalkner found that law enforcement personnel are 26% less likely to commit suicide than their counterparts of the same sex, race, and age not working in law enforcement. Thus, according to this study, attempts to attribute suicides by law enforcement personnel to unique characteristics of the job cannot be supported (p. 386).
In discussing police suicide, Bergen and his colleagues (2001) argued that ”accurate recording and reporting of police suicides is the most critical current research issue. Departments must provide accurate data if meaningful changes are to be implemented” (p. 411). Indeed, all suicide data in the United States suffer from serious methodological problems in a number of areas. In our culture, where suicide is stigmatized and often results in loss of life insurance for survivors, there is a tendency for medical personnel to list a suspicious death as accidental if at all possible. The suicidal person may seek to spare his or her family and make the death seem accidental, for example, by driving a car into a tree or turning a boat over in deep water. Most experts estimate conservatively that the number of actual suicides is at least twice as high as the number reported.
Police data may be particularly suspect because other officers often are the ones who discover the bodies of their dead colleagues. In an attempt to protect the families and, perhaps, the department, they may attempt to cover up the cause of death, including destroying suicide notes (Bergen et al. 2001).
Violanti and his colleagues (1996) demonstrated that official records in Buffalo, New York, underestimated police suicides. They discovered cases labeled ”undetermined” that involved gunshot wounds to the head. (Newspaper accounts sometimes record that the officer was cleaning his gun when it fired accidentally. Officers of my acquaintance suggest that the officer had the cleaning kit out in a deliberate attempt to protect the family by making the death seem accidental.)
The reasons officers commit suicide vary and are often difficult to determine. One study found that the ”typical” officer who committed suicide was a white, 36.9-year-old married male with 12.2 years of law enforcement experience. The act was usually committed off duty (86.3%), at home (54.8%), and with a gun (90.7%) (Aamodt and Stalkner 2001). In a study of officers who were referred for fitness-for-duty evaluations, Janik and Kravitz (1994) found that those who reported marital difficulties were significantly more likely to have made a suicide attempt than those who did not report such difficulties.
Work-related problems trailed far behind relationship problems (26.6% including murder-suicide) and legal problems (14.9%). Alcohol is also mentioned as a contributing factor (Aamodt and Stalkner 2001), but this may be correlated with the other problems, including depression. Campion (2001), in a study of small, Midwestern departments, found that chiefs, sheriffs, and union officials believed that personal stress, depression, emotional problems, traumatic job stress, and alcohol abuse were major contributors to police suicide. (It must be noted here that much of this was conjecture; most of these agencies had had no direct experience with police suicide.) Additionally, escape from seemingly intolerable psychological pain and also the desire for revenge (anger, retribution, and manipulation of others) figure prominently is suicidal motivation in the general public (Marris 1992), and probably play a large role in police suicide.
In one of the earliest works about cases of suicide, the French sociologist, Emil Durkheim (1897-1951) speculated about the importance of what he called anomie: a lack of group cohesiveness, of a shared set of social norms and values. This also may be at work in police suicide (Slater and Depue 1891). Thus, an important deterrence to suicide may be a sense of personal involvement and identity with others. However, many studies have revealed feelings of isolation in officers (Ellison 2004; Lewis 1973).
Any consideration of suicide must also take into account unsuccessful attempts. These figures are even more difficult to obtain, but Gottesfeld (1979) estimates that about ten times as many people attempt suicide as succeed. There have been no studies of attempted suicide among police.
Some people actively try to kill themselves. Others may try passive, indirect means. They take unnecessary risks, or allow themselves to die by failing to attend to health problems or by abusing drugs and alcohol. Such behavior, which Farberow (1980) has called indirect self-destruction, is not included in suicide statistics, and there is no hard evidence to indicate how common it is. Allen (1986), however, believes that for police officers, the likelihood of developing indirect self-destructive behaviors is great. Risk taking in its positive qualities has played a prominent role in the development of their identity as police officers, especially in the form of mastering fear-provoking situations and in facilitating ambitious achievement. In short, risk taking for the individual police officer has established the predominant motives of excitement and mastery (p. 414).
Prevention
Because most of the evidence about incidence and causes of police suicide is circumstantial, it is not easy to devise strategies for prevention. This is especially so because the typical officer is reluctant to admit emotional problems. Even those who discuss problems with fellow officers ordinarily will avoid seeking professional help for fear of damaging her or his career.
Further, prevention is very difficult to measure. However, in hopes of decreasing stress-related disorders and suicide, an increasing number of police departments are providing psychological services (Sheehan and Warren 2001; Reese and Goldstein 1986). These services include monitoring officers’ performance for warning signs of possible suicide and providing stress management training and crisis intervention counseling, including counseling after potentially traumatic incidents.
Although many claims have been made for these programs (see Sheehan and Warren 2001 and Reese and Goldstein 1986), there is little solid, unbiased evidence to substantiate these claims. Even the best tend to have serious flaws. Unfortunately, too, most of these programs focus on the individual officer; few address the organizational factors that have been considered the greatest contributors to stress-related occupational problems (Ell-sion 2004). There are also serious practical and ethical considerations when the person doing the counseling also has the power to deprive the officer of his job. Officers often are loathe to discuss problems with a person whom they see, quite rightly, as a representative of the department.
There is a bright side to this picture. Strategies that work to reduce stress-related problems have much wider applicability than for suicide prevention. They can increase morale and productivity as well as decrease work-related stress reactions (Ellison 2004).
Conclusion
Many questions remain about the nature and causes of police suicide as well as the best strategies for prevention. However, there is general agreement that it is a serious enough problem to warrant continued study and an increase in efforts of prevention. These efforts must be multifaceted. Of course, they must include procedures for selecting the most appropriate individuals for the job, and helping those later found to be in trouble. They must also work to provide optimal organizational conditions that help to ameliorate the impact of the intrinsic and extrinsic stressors of the occupation.
