Local Law Enforcement Suicide Part of National Trend

By Joyce Tse
Special to The Lookout

March 2 -- When an FBI agent was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in her Santa Monica apartment earlier this year, it brought local focus to a problem that has long plagued law enforcement -- police suicides.

In Santa Monica, police officer suicide is rare compared to the rates in other cities across the nation, according to local police officials.

"We haven't had a police officer suicide in Santa Monica in well over 30 years," said Lt. Frank Fabrega, the Police Department spokesman.

Although no federal agency tracks the number of police officer suicides annually, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that police officers have a life span that is eight to 11 years shorter than the average.

Many specialists on the topic of police suicides, like Allen Kates, author of "Cop Shock," estimate that police officers kill themselves at least twice as often as the national average of those who commit suicide, which is reported at about 20 suicides per 100,000 people.

In fact, many experts, including Kates, believe that more police officers currently commit suicide than are killed in the line of duty.

"Statistics do not show the number of retired officers who kill themselves," Kates said. "Statistics do not show the suicides that are covered up by fellow officers or departments in order to validate the deceased's insurance or to avoid embarrassment."

Why the high rates of suicide among police officers? To answer this, it's important to look at what leads people to choose suicide in the first place.

The major cause of suicide -- for law enforcement officers as well as the general population -- is depression, said Dr. Dickson Diamond, a former psychiatrist for the FBI.

"When people are depressed, that increases your likelihood or risk for suicide," Diamond said. "The best prevention for suicide is to treat the depression. By doing that, you decrease the likelihood that anyone will commit suicide."

However, seeking treatment is not always easy, Diamond said.

"If you work in any other job but law enforcement, it's not the business of your employer if you are getting treatment for depression," he said. "But in law enforcement, it's different because you carry a gun."

Today, many police departments offer either in-house counseling services or, like Santa Monica's Police Department, have contracts with outside service providers for their officers to seek help.

Despite efforts to make counseling services available, many police officers tend to avoid seeking treatment because they are uncertain if information shared in counseling will be kept confidential, experts said.

Others may fear losing their guns if they receive counseling and medication to treat depression, experts said.

Still others suffer from what is known as the "John Wayne syndrome," where officers avoid seeking treatment for depression because they refuse to admit to weaknesses and avoid asking for help.

Such factors, along with the perceived stigma of being treated for depression, may help explain the higher instances of untreated depression among police officers.

Some experts also argue that the nature of the job is to blame for the high level of depression among officers. A police officer's job can be stressful, and sometimes involves dealing with, and seeing, extreme violence, pain and loss.

But on the other hand, an officer's job involves other, less exciting duties.

Some experts, including Diamond, argue that these other duties -– and not the violence or crimes -- are more to blame for stress and depression among police officers.

"Being in the car and living more of a dangerous lifestyle, that's the thrill,” Diamond said. “That's what they like to do. In a sense, that's why they become a law enforcement officer."

"It's the paperwork and all the hassle from their supervisors that tends to be more stressful to them," he said.