Cluster Of Suicides Pushes NYPD To Turn To Other Law Enforcement Agencies To Find Ways To Help Officers
“We didn’t think it was possible, but it happened and we have to deal with it,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said last week after the department's sixth suicide since January. Across the nation, more officers die by suicide than in the line of duty. Police are morely likely to suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome and depression. NYPD is adopting programs put in place by Chicago, including providing peer-to-peer counseling and additional mental health training.
The Wall Street Journal:
NYPD Turns To Other Departments For Help After Series Of Suicides
The New York Police Department is looking to outside law-enforcement agencies for help amid a crisis of officers dying by suicide. Six NYPD officers have killed themselves since Jan. 1, placing 2019 on track to be the most in a year since 2012, when there were eight officer suicides. Four of the six deaths in 2019 occurred in June, a cluster that has prompted police officials to ask departments in other cities for advice on how they are working to prevent officer suicides. (Chapman, 7/1)
NBC News:
Fourth NYPD Officer Suicide In 3 Weeks A Reminder Of 'Combustible' Situation
The city of Chicago has also grappled with a cluster of police suicides, with at least three this year and four last year, officials said. O'Neill said his department reached out to Chicago's police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, who recommended New York look at expanding its peer-to-peer resources and evaluate its policy for when an officer's firearm should be taken away. "One of the biggest challenges — and why it takes courage to get help — is as someone's becoming anxious, depressed, jumpy, maybe starting to self-medicate with alcohol, get burnt out, it becomes tougher for that person to believe they can get help and that help will work," Dowling said. (Ortiz, 6/30)
