Police suicides reflect the toll of unaddressed PTSD

The black silhouettes posted to BlueHelp.org are immediately recognizable as police officers. Nameless and faceless, each outline represents an officer who took his or her own life.

Three police suicides are listed for Feb. 11, the day that the Kansas City Police Department announced the death of an officer who had shot himself in a church parking lot several days prior. It might seem counterintuitive, but the glorification of law enforcement contributes to the problem of police suicide. Hero worship envelopes police, especially in recent years. The public’s desire to see police as invincible, able to withstand trauma and grief that would break the average citizen, is unrelenting.

“It’s exhausting being strong all of the time,” said one Kansas City officer who knew the deceased. “When are you just allowed to be human?”

BlueHelp.org believes it is the only organization tallying the steady number of police suicides. Not all are reported, especially among officers who are retired. The annual number known has held firm in recent years, about 160 deaths. At this writing, there were 31 for 2019.

Ask a hundred different officers and you will likely hear a hundred different opinions about what can or should be done about police suicides. The view that little can be done will be included.

Much of this work needs to happen within departments, officer to officer, through the frank discussion that’s more likely among like-minded people with shared experiences. Peer-to-peer programs are increasingly used. One is being developed in Kansas City.

But there is also a role for the public.

A dangerous polarization has set in in recent years, touched off by police shootings, the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and cellphone and dash-cam video that can go viral. Policing must be scrutinized, including by media or activists; that is not the problem. Law enforcement is given extraordinary authority over the general public, even the expectation that they can legally kill. They need to be held to high standards.

And yet, hypersensitive to any criticism of police, an equally adamant segment of the general public rushes to counter such scrutiny, too often and perhaps unwittingly placing police on an unrealistic pedestal.

They do so in a loaded language of valor. To hear some people, all officers are able to conjure extraordinary courage, almost superhuman powers.

But police are not comic book superheroes, able to withstand strains and trials unlike other people by their training alone. Police are trained to do what is necessary to save their own lives and those of others in danger. It doesn’t mean that they’re not affected by it — or by a million other aspects of their jobs that the average person, or reporter, cannot fathom.

PTSD is often defined as a normal reaction to an abnormal amount of stress — exactly the types of stress first responders deal with regularly. Therefore government authorities must be prepared to provide law enforcement with what they need to deal with PTSD: funding for programs, awareness and a shift in attitude.

The public by and large is thankful for and respectful of law enforcement. Please, let’s understand that there is a mental health risk officers take as well, and we need to allow officers the space and the resources to reach out and receive help when they need it most.