Police suicide: An overview

Police work is an occupation replete with psychological stress and trauma, danger, and availability of firearms. Under such conditions, one might expect an increased risk of suicide, and police suicide rates have appeared to increase over the past decade. In this article, we discuss relationships of occupational stress, availability of firearms, alcohol use, and retirement with police suicide. Also discussed are suggestions for reducing police suicide, including intervention programs, suicide awareness training, and increasing the accuracy of police suicide rates to increase awareness for police organizational prevention policies.