Our police protect us, let’s protect them

You know that something’s badly wrong when the first responders tasked with saving other people’s lives start taking their own.

But that, in fact, is what’s happening at a disturbing level in Ontario where at least nine police officers died by suicide in 2018.

Whether they’ve been traumatized by horrific accidents, threatened by violent criminals, shot at, yelled at, punched or just worn down by the relentless stresses of the job, police in this province are, for reasons not fully understood, killing themselves at a rate much higher than the general population.

For the sake of the public which relies on these men and women in uniform as well as everyone who wears a badge, something should be done. And with this in mind, Ontarians can welcome a report commissioned by the province’s chief coroner that spelled out this week what that action should be.

One of the most stunning findings by the Expert Panel on Police Officer Death by Suicide is that the number of officers taking their own lives in this province appears to be “unprecedented.” That conclusion, by the way, mirrors what’s being observed in the United States where police suicides have been labelled an epidemic.

Part of the problem in Ontario is a troubling lack of information. No one knows exactly how many police officers are taking their own lives or how many become overwhelmed by mental health issues to the point that they contemplate suicide.

Fortunately such vital information will soon be more available. That’s because Ontario’s chief coroner, Dr. Dirk Huyer, has already heeded one of the expert panel’s key recommendations and launched a new system to track the suicide deaths of all first responders.

But that’s only the first of many steps that should be taken. We need to know more about why so many police are dying by suicide. The panel that reported this week, which included experts in mental health and policing, zeroed in on the unique culture of this profession.

It is, to be sure, like living in a pressure cooker. Up to 40 per cent of police calls require officers to respond to someone with a mental illness. And anyone aware of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder will realize why police who see the bloodied victim of a murder or traffic collision might be especially vulnerable to this condition.

But because police are expected to be brave and resilient, and because of the unfair stigma often attached to mental illness, they’re often reluctant to admit a problem — or seek help for it. Nor should it be forgotten that police have easier access to the lethal means for a suicide death than the general public.

Now is the moment the mental health of police officers must become a greater priority in Ontario. One way to accomplish this is to follow a key recommendation from the expert panel and require every police department in the province to develop and implement a mental health strategy for its officers by June 2020. The panel’s call for a special standing body to consider measures such as changing police workloads or hiring mental health professionals for more forces also makes sense.

These are the right things to do, for moral as well as practical reasons. To properly serve and protect the public, police must be of sound body and mind. But if they’re ready to give so much to us, we should not hesitate to do more for them. Never forget: When we flee danger, they rush into it.