Suicide is not a Personal Defect, it is a Community Failure; We Can Make a Difference

Officer suicides, both law enforcement and corrections, have received a lot of attention. They are consistently near the top of the list of professions with high suicide rates (Frost, 2021, p.1). Any suicide is traumatic to those close to the person, but it is especially traumatic in a profession where the members’ identity is so closely tied to the profession itself. Twice as many police officers are lost to suicide than die from gunshot or traffic accidents combined (Heyman, 2018), and the Center for Disease Control reported that police have a 69% greater risk of suicide than the general working population (Territo, 2019, p.197).