Report: Law enforcement officers face a 54 percent higher risk of dying by their own hands

Originally written for Crime in America. Republished with permission.

Why are so many professionals leaving law enforcement, corrections, and youth services? 
 
Compared to the general population, law enforcement officers face a 54 percent higher risk of dying by suicide.
 

Background

In late 2023, the CNA Corporation began collaborating with the nonprofit organization First H.E.L.P. to examine and analyze the data it has amassed on law enforcement and correctional officer deaths by suicide. This research brief presents analyses of the 1,287 deaths by suicide of law enforcement and correctional officers from 2016 to 2022, offering descriptive information categorized by the year of occurrence, agency details, geographic location, demographic attributes, position specifics, help-seeking behaviors, life challenges the person encountered before their death, and details about the death event.

This article is based on their research. A summation is below. I suggest you read the entire document for a complete analysis.

Article

Fundamental questions, why do we collectively ignore the mental health of cops? If you saw and experienced the same horrific events as police officers, are you willing to say that it wouldn’t affect you?  Do the same questions apply to other aspects of the justice system? Is it possible that the lack of mental health services in policing contributes to the use of force?

Why are so many professionals leaving law enforcement, corrections, and youth services? There are prisons, mental health, and youth service facilities that are considerably understaffed creating situations where violence is a growing problem.

Considering the child abuse and neglect backgrounds, mental health, and substance abuse issues of offenders who were exposed to violence in their homes and communities, I believe I understand why professionals leave the justice system. After leaving law enforcement and graduating from college, I worked with a young man in a Job Corps facility who was wonderfully promising and was murdered while trying to protect a female student. As a street counselor in Baltimore, I worked with youth who were convinced that violence was simply a preferred way of life.

There are multiple references to the psychological and emotional problems of youth and others in high-crime communities because they were exposed to violence. The same principle applies to journalists and medical professionals. Why do their concerns get acknowledged while the trauma public safety personnel are exposed to is ignored?

There is surprisingly little data examining law enforcement officers who experience violence and death on a fairly frequent basis. As a former police officer, I was aware of officers who were dedicated to fair and equal treatment who occasionally displayed inappropriate or aggressive behaviors that were probably stress-induced. 

Contrary to popular belief, the majority of police officers intervene when a colleague displays inappropriate behavior. It’s in the collective best interest of officers which is why, per US Department of Justice data, the use of force “or” the threat of force is so low per replicated studies of police-citizen encounters.  The same study indicates that, regardless of demographics, the overwhelming majority of respondents were satisfied with police encounters.

Police Officers Leaving-Crimes and Arrests Have Plummeted

Two US Department of Justice agencies called the lack of police officers a crisis. Per the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, thousands of police officers and employees have left the job. Media reports cite cities as being hundreds of police officers down from authorized levels. One report cites Philadelphia as having a deficit of over 1,000 officers. Oakland, CA offers approximately 35 officers a shift for major city.

Not having enough cops creates enormous stress for the remaining officers. There are reports of officers taking well over an hour to respond to incidents. Crime reporting and rates impacted.

Arrests and crimes solved are at historic lows. There is a 20 percent decline in police-citizen contacts in one year.

The evidence seems abundantly clear, law enforcement is being challenged like never before.  Cops are being asked to do more with less. There is a movement to enforce red flag laws (weapons confiscation with a court order). Does anyone understand how complicated that is and the personpower necessary? So you are going to remove firearms from a person with mental health or emotional issues who has a criminal history with family members in the house? That leads to predictable outcomes. 

Why Are Cops Leaving?

First, let us acknowledge that according to Gallup and other polling data, police officers are held in high regard when compared to other professions. They are rated much higher than most including Congress and the media.

The public should understand that out of 50-60 million yearly contacts between law enforcement and citizens, it’s almost impossible for all to be handled perfectly. As a former police officer, I understood that people I interacted with could be abusive, violent, aggressive, and downright impossible to work with.

Many have mental health issues. Per the USDOJ, most are under the influence during arrests. Yet force “or” the threat of force is rare in American policing per the citizens asked.

The law enforcement profession has taken a public relations beating regarding the use of force  (yes, some of it was justified) yet other occupations seem immune. The data I read about the hundreds of thousands of medical mistakes makes me wary but I do not believe that nurses or doctors are fundamentally flawed. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. It’s the same for journalism, business, or any other occupation. We all make mistakes.

There are approximately 19,000 police agencies and well over one million police employees according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the stereotyping of all police employees based on the inappropriate or illegal actions of a few has the same philosophical underpinnings as racism or sexism. Families are encouraging their police officer loved ones to get out of policing, and to get out now based on perceived public disrespect.

The great majority of daily media coverage of cops is negative, usually regarding police use of force issues that are statistically low per three replicated US Department of Justice studies of police-citizen interactions. There are national publications specializing in negative cop stories.

A quote from a newspaper citing the research below on police suicide, “Propaganda article? Suicide is sad. To use it to some how pity people who get paid a lot of tax payer dollars, to do what looks a terrible job of eliminating crime and keeping the less able safe from harm, is just a sickening lack of awareness.”

One law enforcement expert once told me that most unjustified use of force issues would disappear if officers could remove themselves from street duty (and be temporally assigned to administrative functions) while their personal or professional difficulties were resolved. Use of force could also be resolved if officers had the readably available equipment to safely immobilize offenders or the training to de-escalate. He suggested that government and society are simply too cheap to keep officers out of harm’s way.

However, massive staffing issues mandate that officers be kept on active patrol regardless of their stressors. Does that stress lead to police suicides?

Police Killed Or Assaulted

Associated Press: The rate of assaults on American law enforcement reached a 10-year high in 2023, with more than 79,000 officer attacks reported, according to a new FBI report released Tuesday.

The report analyzes data from state, local, federal and other agencies across the U.S. to determine trends in violence against law enforcement. It shows that the number of officers assaulted and injured by guns is also climbing.

Agencies reported 466 assaults with firearms in 2023, which is the highest level in a decade, FBI officials said. That’s up from less than 200 officers assaulted and injured by guns in 2014.

There were 60 officers killed as the result of criminal acts in 2023, compared to 61 the year prior and 73 in 2021. Doesn’t police assaultive data justify a level of stress?  

The Report-Law Enforcement And Public Safety Personnel Mental Health And Deaths by Suicide (lightly edited) 

Police and correctional officers (hereafter referred to as public safety personnel) routinely confront arduous and psychologically taxing circumstances that can adversely affect their mental and emotional health. In a thorough survey encompassing 2,232 law enforcement officers, Mumford and colleagues (2021) noted that although two-thirds displayed healthy behaviors, approximately one-fourth encountered moderate health challenges, and a minority (6 percent) grappled with more severe health issues.

Similarly, a separate study conducted by Drew and Martin (2023) involving 3,994 officers found that 44 percent experienced psychological distress, such as depression and anxiety within the previous four weeks, and nearly a quarter of them experienced moderate to severe distress.

Extensive research highlights the profound repercussions of poor wellness characteristics among public safety personnel, including cognitive dissonance toward society, feelings of isolation, and diminished self-worth, which potentially increase the risk of suicide attempts or deaths by suicide (Civilotti et al., 2022; Newiss et al., 2022; Stogner et al., 2020; Violanti & Steege, 2021).

Thoen et al. (2020) reported that 12.4 percent of surveyed police officers (emphasis added) expressed a likelihood of future suicide attempts, with 13.2 percent acknowledging suicidal thoughts in the past year. Moreover, compared to the general population, law enforcement officers face a 54 percent higher risk of dying by suicide (emphasis added-Violanti & Steege, 2021), underscoring the critical need for comprehensive wellness programs and support structures within the field.

Despite extensive research into the correlates of public safety personnel deaths by suicide, all police and public safety professions are challenged by the absence of a systematic, national, and comprehensive data collection effort to fully grasp the extent of the problem (Dixon, 2021; Malik et al., 2023; NASEM, 2023).

Recognizing the critical need for accurate data in this area, Congress enacted the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection (LESDC) Act on June 16, 2020. Part of the LESDC Act mandates the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to establish a national data collection effort to seek incidental information on suicides, including gestures, ideation, and attempted suicides within the law enforcement community.

However, initial federal efforts have been slow and have encountered numerous challenges. The nonprofit organization First H.E.L.P. (Honor, Educate, Lead, Prevent) has been collecting data systematically since 2016 on deaths by suicide among public safety personnel.

In late 2023, the CNA Corporation (hereafter “CNA”) initiated a partnership with First H.E.L.P. to undertake the first comprehensive analysis of its extensive dataset on public safety personnel deaths by suicide. This brief presents an overview of previous research and data collection endeavors related to public safety personnel deaths by suicide.

It outlines the methodology employed by First H.E.L.P. for its data collection and offers descriptive insights into public safety personnel deaths by suicide. The results are organized according to the year of occurrence, agency information, geographical distribution, demographic attributes, position details, help-seeking behaviors, life challenges the person encountered before their death, and details about the death event.