Research and Describe Police Suicide in USA: Stress in Policing (Essay Sample)

Police Suicide in USA: Stress in Policing
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Police Suicide in USA: Stress in Policing
Introduction
Every year, several police officers commit suicide in the United States (U.S.). Most of them make this fatal choice when they face various work-related challenges and upheavals in family or personal relationships. Numerous factors such as poor nutrition, drug and substance abuse, intrusive thoughts, and traumatic experience usually affect their judgment and perceptions about life and suicide. This paper examines the issue of stress in policing. Specifically, the paper explores three selected cases of police suicide in the United States including Ashley Bryant, Scott Tracz, and Michael Ameri’s suicides. Additionally, the paper analyzes the indicators of stress that may lead to suicidal thoughts or attempts and measures of minimizing incidences of police suicide. Finally, the paper examines POPPA, an organization and part of the New York Police Department (NYPD) that assists the troubled officers.
Cases of Sergeant Bryant, Officer Tracz, and Inspector Ameri
The death of Ashley Bryant, 44, in 2013 is one of the hundreds of cases of police suicides documented by the Badge of Life every year. Mr. Bryant, a former police detective, and a homicide sergeant died on December 16 in the hinterland of the Byron Bay after throwing himself off the Minyon Falls (Morrison, 2017). Before his death, Mr. Bryant’s doctors had diagnosed him with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol abuse, and depression after witnessing the murder of his fellow constables Peter Addison and Robert Spears in 1995. He had also responded to numerous cases of suicide, murder, drowning, and other traumatic situations as part of his profession. Because of his condition, his psychologists advised that he should not work in the police unit. In 2012, his doctors treated him for alcohol addiction and PTSD and recommended that he was not fit for police force. He thought he would receive a full superannuation and get a less stressful and traumatic job than police work (Morrison, 2017). Instead, he only received a partial superannuation. Since the police superannuation refused to give him a full hurt on duty pension, he could no longer cope with the level of stress he was experiencing. He decided to commit suicide.
Before jumping off the Minyon Falls, Mr. Bryant called 000 and confessed that he was about to take his life. He requested the operator to record and play the call before the coroner for other police officers and their families not to undergo a similar experience (Morrison, 2017). Stressful and traumatic work experiences forced Mr. Bryant to kill himself. However, strict adherence to police welfare policies could have prevented Mr. Bryant’s death. According to the coroner, the medical officer of the police made a mistake by ruling officer Bryant fully fit for police job contrary to his personal doctors’ ruling.
Another case of police suicide occurred in Chicago in 2016. Scott Tracz, a novice Chicago police officer, shot himself in his girlfriend’s compound. The thirty-year-old Officer Tracz developed symptoms of withdrawal and sullenness after experiencing violence as an officer. According to Ark Maciaszek, his cousin, Mr. Tracz refused to seek help from the police department’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) because he feared losing his job. Following the release of a video showing a white officer shooting Laquan McDonald, a black teenager in 2015, the Chicago’s police officers experienced an intensified pressure. In 2016, the number of killings in Chicago was 60% higher than Los Angeles and New York. Although Tracz had longed to become a sergeant and help others, the violence-prone Chicago Lawn district made him come face to face with violent crime. Working in an environment that accounted for 58% of the city’s shootings and murder, Mr. Tracz could not cope. According to his cousin, he became more irritable and angry straining his relationship with his girlfriend. Following the traumatic and stressful work environment, Mr. Tracz shot himself inside a black sports car outside his girlfriend’s compound. Seeking help would have prevented Mr. Tracz’s death. However, stocking the departments with adequate resources such as clinician’s counselors, and psychologists would eliminate the belief that seeking help may result in loss of job. If Mr. Tracz had shared his stress with the health professionals at the EAP, he would be alive today.
Inspector Michael Ameri also formed part of the statistics of the numerous cases of police suicide in the United States. The NYPD commander shot himself on the head on Long Island Friday in 2016. Mr. Ameri committed suicide after the corruption grilling by the FBI that saw the Internal Affairs cops seize boxes of records (Schram, Cohen, & Fredericks, 2016). The divorced father of one boy was the head of Highway District. Reports state that he feared that his career would be in jeopardy because the feds and the Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) was investigating a scandal involving the unauthorized chaperons of the Orthodox Jewish Community members. The IAB raided his house in search of the escort logs and seized a two-year police escort files. He became distressed and felt the probe would jeopardize his profession (Schram et al., 2016). Although Roy Richter, the head of his union had reassured him that everything would be fine, the 44-year old Ameri could not deal with the stressful situation. Before the Jewish holidays, Mr. Ameri avoided the Jewish Orthodox Community and told his close friends that the probe was worrying him (Schram et al., 2016). According to his mother, Mr. Ameri was jovial two days to his death, and he did not show any signs of worry. However, fear gripped him because it was rumored that incitement and departmental conflicts would mar the probe. The police inspector was found dead in West Babylon on 13 May along the quiet street connecting the Bergen Point Golf Course. Since Mr. Ameri did not show any symptom of suicidal thoughts, nothing much could have been done to prevent him from killing himself.
Warning Signs of Stress that May Lead to Suicide
Deductive studies indicate that various psychological, biological, and social factors increase the risk of suicide. These factors may include changeable behavioral aspects such as drug and substance or unchangeable genetic factors such as suicidal family history. Undoubtedly, policing is a stressful profession hence prone to suicidal thoughts and attempts. Most officers respond to stressful and traumatic situations of death scenes, violence, and fatal accidents. Therefore, police officers are at higher risk of committing suicide than other professions. While traumatic experiences and PTSD are the common causes of police suicide, constant exposure to other low-level stressors such as work shift, arbitrary rules, huge workloads, policing culture, and erratic work schedule contributes to suicide.
It is, therefore, necessary to understand the warning signs of stress that may prompt an officer to commit suicide. According to Kulbarsh (2017), a stressed individual is likely to display following suicidal warning signs of stress:
* Always talking or writing about or glorifying suicide or death
* Giving verbal signs through remarks such as “I cannot continue living,” I wish I could die,” and other suicidal phrases.
* Withdrawal from family, colleagues, and friends
* Displaying a sudden improvement of attitude or mood after being withdrawn or depressed. For example, the person may suddenly become happy, eat more food, or take his friends out.
* Neglecting one’s hygiene and appearance
* Sudden and hostile behavioral changes including being argumentative, passive or subordinate, and hopeless
* Asking a colleague or a friend to keep his or her working tools such as Gun and uniform
* Displaying reckless behavior aimed at threatening his or her life and job or acting in a way that shows that death is what he or she wishes for
* Registering unusually poor performance at work
* Developing unusual interest in drugs and substances
* Writing a will and putting things in order
* Visiting or calling friends and relatives to wish them goodbye
* Constantly promising to kill someone
* Having trouble eating or sleeping
* Developing sudden mood swings
* Developing ways of committing suicide
Measures of Reducing Incidences of Suicide by Police Officers
Undoubtedly, the cumulative experiences of low-level stressors, PTSD, depression, and traumatic situations surrounding policing contribute greatly to police suicide. Therefore, there is need to establish mitigating measures that would consider all the factors leading to suicidal decisions. Ideally, suicide of the police is preventable. Following the increasing cases of police suicide, the will for preventing the tragedy is growing. However, the preventive measures put in place should give hope to the officers struggling with suicidal thoughts after exposure to depression, violence, trauma, and anxiety.
One such measure is putting strategies for improving the response to mental health issues such as extreme trauma and PTSD. However, this measure would be effective if the police department controls the impact of continuous exposure of the officers to cultural stressors and poor management and the stigma resulting from mental conditions within the work environment. By accounting for these factors, the law enforcement agencies address the environmental factors such as authoritative leadership, severe or painful working conditions, and erratic decision making by the managers that subject the officers to emotional torture (Roufa, 2017).
Secondly, the policing sector needs to educate its staff and the se...