No matter how big or small it is, every agency can take steps to prevent suicide by its employees. These steps don’t have to be difficult or expensive: an agency can do a lot with a small amount of money and effort.

Every member of every agency, from the newest recruit to the chief or head of the agency, should receive brief training about suicide prevention. Note: the agency should give this training to all its members, including part-time, reserve, or auxiliary officers, and non-sworn or "civilian" personnel. This training should include, at the least:

• Where employees can get help if they are suicidal, or if a co-worker, family member, or friend is suicidal
• How to recognize signs that someone else may be suicidal

Every member of your agency needs to be able to get confidential counseling for personal problems. There are several ways to provide counseling. Ideally, all would be available, since different problems may call for different approaches, and people may be more comfortable with one source of help than another. For example, some officers who would not talk to a "doctor" would talk to a fellow officer who is a peer counselor. Some officers who would not talk to a "counselor" would talk to a chaplain, etc. No way of getting help is "better" than any other way; they are all ways for officers to reach out for assistance.

Some agencies, especially larger ones, have in-house counseling or psychological units, sometimes using police surgeons or psychologists. Agency-based counseling can be very valuable, but there are several issues that must be addressed if they it is to be effective.

Confidentiality is critical. If officers do not feel that what they tell counseling personnel is confidential, many will not seek help for themselves, and will not refer other officers for help. The agency must tell officers what the counseling program will and will not consider confidential, and the agency must maintain the confidentiality it promises.

Officers will not seek help from any department counseling unit unless they feel that the unit has the officers’ best interests at heart. If officers think that the police surgeons or counselors are just "company men" who give out the "party line," and only want to do what’s easiest for the agency, then the counseling system will not work.

Many times, officers with serious personal problems who seek counseling from in-house agency sources may raise disciplinary and legal questions for the agency. While we can’t address these issues in detail on this page, we can say this:

• Your agency needs to have clear policies on what its response will be when it learns about an officer’s personal problems through its in-house counseling system.
• Your agency needs to tell officers, in advance, what those policies are.

In peer counseling, officers get help from fellow officers who are trained to be peer counselors. The goal of a peer counselor is generally not to provide in-depth counseling or therapy, but rather to refer the officer who needs help to the appropriate place (a psychologist/psychiatrist, counseling program, alcohol treatment center, etc.) and to assist the officer by providing some emotional support. Peer counseling can be very effective, since officers may be more willing to get help from fellow officers than from other places, especially if the officers distrust the agency that they work for, or are fearful of the consequences of seeking help through the usual "official" channels.

It is important that peer counselors receive proper training, and that they be volunteers who are willing to use their own time, if need be, to help other officers. Ideally, at least some of the peer counselors should be line officers, since some officers will not feel comfortable dealing with supervisors or "downtown" personnel.

Peer counseling is not designed to replace other forms of help for officers, but to work with these other programs.

Peer counseling can be set up by your agency, or can be set up by your union(s). For example, the NYPD’s unions, in cooperation with the department, but independently from it, have set up a Membership Assistance Program (M.A.P.) with peer counseling and referrals to sources of help outside the department. For more details, please contact the program at 1-888-COPS-COP (1-888-267-7267).

Training for this program was provided by The Peer Support Training Institute, a division of Manhattan Counseling and Psychotherapy Associates. For further information on this training, you can call (212) 477-8050, (877) PSTI-NYC, or go to www.peersupport.com on the Internet.

Your agency can set up a program under which officers with problems can seek counseling outside your agency. Often, this counseling can be paid for, at least in part, by officers’ medical insurance. This can help keep costs reasonable for both the officer and the agency.

Having the counseling program be independent of your agency will make officers more willing to seek help. (It can also make it more difficult for lawyers to subpoena an officer’s counseling records.) An independent counseling program can give officers appropriate treatment without regard to the legal, administrative, and ethical dilemmas that may arise when a law enforcement agency has its own personnel counsel its officers. Many communities have low-cost counseling programs available, and local teaching hospitals, universities, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers can help with advice on such programs.

Police chaplains and other clergy can be an invaluable, low-cost resource for helping officers with problems. One of the greatest concerns officers have when seeking help is confidentiality. One thing that most officers will believe is that a priest, rabbi, minister, or other member of the clergy will keep what is said to him or her confidential. A member of the clergy may be especially comforting to an officer who is religious, and talking to a clergy member lacks the stigma of seeing a psychiatrist, psychologist, etc.

While some officers might be more comfortable with a chaplain or clergy member of their own faith, most officers will realize that a sincere member of the clergy, from any religion, will be willing to help them. There are probably many capable clergy members in your community who would gladly volunteer to help officers with problems. Like a peer counselor or a chaplain, an outside clergy member will usually not provide in-depth, long-term therapy or counseling, or try to do the job of a psychiatrist or psychologist, but rather will refer the officer, confidentially, to other sources of help.

Officers frequently turn to representatives of their union (PBA, FOP, etc.) for help with personal problems. Many officers trust their union representatives more than they trust their departments. Your agency can only gain by working together with the union to develop effective counseling programs. Your agency should make it clear that it will cooperate with the union in getting help for officers who need it. Having the union participate in, or endorse, programs to help officers will make those programs more credible to officers.

Officers with personal problems may be afraid to get help because they fear that their firearms may be removed by their department. Many officers view "having your guns taken away" as a disgrace, a punishment given to officers who have done something wrong or are incompetent. Your agency should have programs for non-disciplinary firearms removal.

• Supervisors should be able to remove officers’ firearms discreetly, without bringing disciplinary action against the officers.
• Officers themselves should be able to surrender their firearms voluntarily, without disciplinary consequences. Officers should also be able to surrender their personally owned firearms (both handguns and long guns) for safekeeping, as well as surrendering department-owned firearms or duty weapons.

Suicide has a powerful effect on co-workers of the officer who has committed suicide. Your agency should make counseling available to the officer’s co-workers, and should have an appropriate counselor discuss the officer’s death briefly at the officer’s workplace. Whoever speaks at the officer’s workplace should emphasize that:

• it is all right for the officer’s co-workers to be upset about the officer’s death, and to feel sadness, guilt or responsibility that they "caused" the officer’s death, or did not prevent it. The may even feel anger at the officer who committed suicide.
• no one but the officer was responsible for the officer’s death
• that no one could absolutely have prevented the officer’s death
• anyone who wishes to discuss the officer’s suicide privately with a counselor can do so

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URGENT: IF YOU ARE THINKING OF SUICIDE, CLICK HERE

IF YOU NEED HELP FOR SOMEONE ELSE WHO MAY BE SUICIDAL, CLICK HERE

IMPORTANT NOTE: nothing on this web page or any other web page by the Police Suicide Prevention Association, or in any link or other web page linked to a Police Suicide prevention Association Web Page, constitutes medical, psychiatric, or psychological advice or treatment, or legal advice. Nothing in such web pages or links is intended to replace such advice or treatment. Links to, or references to, other organizations do not necessarily imply that the Police Suicide Prevention Center endorses those organizations, or that those organizations endorse the Police Suicide Prevention Center. 

NIE   04/01/2001