More L.A. police commit suicide than die in line of duty, study finds

[marmar]

from the AP, via the LA Times:



More L.A. police commit suicide than die in line of duty, study finds
From the Associated Press
March 26, 2008


Police officers in Los Angeles are more likely to take their own life than be killed by a criminal, according to a report presented today to the Police Commission.

The data was included in a study by police psychologists who are in the process of retooling the agency's suicide prevention program.

The report said 19 Los Angeles police officers killed themselves between 1998 and 2007, while only seven died in the line of duty during that time.

Psychologists calculated in the report that suicide rates among police officers in Los Angeles are higher than their counterparts in Chicago and New York.

Suicides are even more prevalent among police officers in San Diego than Los Angeles, the report said.

Kevin Jablonski, chief psychiatrist for the Los Angeles Police Department, pinned the high suicide rates on the mental anguish that comes from policing dangerous streets.

"When you interact day after day, hour after hour with either the victims of crime or the perpetrators of crime, you start thinking this world is dangerous, this world is violent," he said. "It's depressing."

Department psychologists said in their report that the suicide rate among Los Angeles officers had decreased more than 20 percent since 1998, when the department made a push to increase suicide prevention services. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-suicide26mar26,0,2015513.story

[midnight]

1. I'm not disagreeing with this.

"When you interact day after day, hour after hour with either the victims of crime or the perpetrators of crime, you start thinking this world is dangerous, this world is violent," he said. "It's depressing." We have people living with this level of stress and danger in NOLA. I think a radical new way of thinking has to take hold. We can no longer turn a blind eye to poverty.

[LanternWaste]

4. My ex-BIL (a cop) is of the same mind

My ex-BIL (a cop) is of the same mind-- 12 hours of his day is geared towards confronting the worst among us, and he's told me that there's been a long term affect of on his psyche due to this.

His only relief is his family at home and his family at church. According to him, those are the ONLY two places his subconscious will allow him to completely and absolutely relax (and no-- this isn't a pro-church or pro-religion post).

Constantly looking over his shoulder. Every day waking up and thinking, "this could be THE day-- the day when I finally get it from a baddie". Every traffic stop is his potential death. Every call is possibly his last.

How long can a person work in those conditions without something giving?

[asteroid2003QQ47]

8. Circular dynamic at work.

Your BIL might find the results of social scientist, Gregory Paul's study interesting.

Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side'
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today.

According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems.
<>
Many liberal Christians and believers of other faiths hold that religious belief is socially beneficial, believing that it helps to lower rates of violent crime, murder, suicide, sexual promiscuity and abortion. The benefits of religious belief to a society have been described as its “spiritual capital”. But the study claims that the devotion of many in the US may actually contribute to its ills.

The paper, published in the Journal of Religion and Society, a US academic journal, reports: “Many Americans agree that their churchgoing nation is an exceptional, God-blessed, shining city on the hill that stands as an impressive example for an increasingly sceptical world.

“In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies.

“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”

Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach his conclusions.
<>
The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high...
< }
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article571206.ece

[LanternWaste]

12. I'm afraid I don't understand the relevance of the study...

I'm afraid I don't understand the relevance of the study regarding the emotional and mental strain being a cop can put on a person... :shrug:

[midnight]

2. I'm not disagreeing with this.

"When you interact day after day, hour after hour with either the victims of crime or the perpetrators of crime, you start thinking this world is dangerous, this world is violent," he said. "It's depressing." We have people living with this level of stress and danger in NOLA. I think a radical new way of thinking has to take hold. We can no longer turn a blind eye to poverty.

[slackmaster]

3. Easy access to guns must be the issue

:argh:

[asteroid2003QQ47]

5. Divorce relevant?

It might be interesting to correlate divorce
with the suicide rate.

[Juche]

6. Does this hold for all police officers

In my limited experience certain personality types (type A, authoritarian, seeing things in harsh black/white, fearful of a dangerous world, etc) are more attracted to police work than the laid back, hippy type. Are the suicides in any way traced to the kinds of people whose personalities drive them to become cops or is it the job alone that causes suicide?

ie, is there a certain personality type that is attracted to police work that has a higher than average predisposition to suicide, or is it solely the effect of the job?

[selador]

7. among other things

police officers are men.

men have a much higher suicide rate than women. similarly, cops have a much higher suicide rate than the general population

when you factor out for age and gender issues, cops in general don't have a particularly high suicide rate as compared to the population at large (it IS higher, just not nearly as significantly). not speaking of LAPD here, just LEO's in general.

joseph wambaugh said it best, that police work is far from the most physically dangerous profession, but it is arguably the most emotionally dangerous.

improved officer safety techniques, less lethal weapons (taser, etc.), specialized units (SWAT - SWAT had their FIRST officer related death recently in LAPD. much safer to use SWAT in various incidents), and ballistic vests have all given officers improved PHYSiCAL protections

however... the psychological aspects have not been (imo) adequately addressed.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

9. Not all police officers are men.

Single men have a higher suicide rate then married men.
Married women have a higher suicide rate then single women.

Suicide is a very complex issue.

-----------------------------------------------
The thought of suicide is a great source of comfort:
with it a calm passage is to be made across many a night.
--Friedrich Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und Bose, IV, 157.

[selador]

11. correct

that was a typo. i meant to type MOST are men.

last i checked, nationwide, about 88% of cops are men

and inside PD's men are more likely to work in the more physically dangerous positions (which are correlated with higher suicide rates). this is true in every PD i've seen and worked in and was confirmed in an old LEO journal i read. so, that also skews the statistics. iow, a detective is less likely to commit suicide than a patrol officer

suicide is complex, but some certainties are undeniable

men commit suicide FAR more often thatn women

interstingly, women 'attempt' far more often but most of these attempts are half-hearted cries for help with weak wrist scratches or (inefective) medication overdoses.

in over 20 years of law enforcement experience i have gone to FAR more "attempt" suicides by women. far more SUICIDES by men

the stats back this up

[goclark]

10. Police officers in Los Angeles have a high divorce rate

that was my knowledge in the 1980's.
Most that I met and knew well at the time at at least 2-3 divorces.