How do they start? 

Over the years, law enforcement has accumulated some of the worst misinformation imaginable.  It spreads from one website into another and even into some books.  Some of it starts innocently, by those who have misread literature or repeat bogus information thrown out by some snake oil salesman collecting a fat fee for a lecture.  One of the missions of Badge of Life is to weed out the bogus information and point people to what is reliable.

HOW DO WE SPOT BOGUS INFORMATION? 

First, ask, "Where did it come from?" 

Don't accept statements like, "Studies say,"  "researchers have found," "It is accepted that," and similar vague generalities.  Ask the author or lecturer where these "facts" came from.  If what you're reading or hearing doesn't include references to the actual studies, ask for them--specifically.  If they hem and haw, you're being taken for a ride.

When someone says, for example, "Studies have shown that police officers have the highest rate of divorces (or alcoholism)," ask them for the study that told them that.  You may find that they either don't have the reference or they are quoting someone else who didn't have one either! 

Second, if they throw a bunch of "scientific" gibberish at you that you can't understand, don't be afraid to ask for a simpler breakdown.  They should be able to provide it--and if they can't, it's because they don't have the answer.  Walk away.

We give you the facts, not all of which are popular to all cops.  But they're as factual as we can get.  No fluff, no drama, no fantasy.  "Just the facts."

 

  

 

 

"PTSD is a self-inflicted malady."

 

This is macho-rubbish, spread by several of the charismatics on the lecture circuit.  PTSD is not "self-harming," like cutting.  It is an emotional injury with clearly diagnosable signs that are the result of an external cause--in fact, PTSD is the one mental illness in the DSM that is purely the result of an external source. There is much an individual can do to prepare for a traumatic or even cumulative events. In so doing, one can lessen the impact or avoid the impacts entirely.  But to suggest that, if an individual is traumatized that it is somehow the person's "fault" is utterly false. 

 

 

 

 

Lt. Michael Pigott, NYPD.  Using his best judgement to order tasering a mental patient who then fell to his death, Piggott was stripped of his gun and badge, hidden away and publicly "thrown under the bus" by his department.  Traumatized and deeply humiliated by this treatment, he took his life.  A line of duty death?

Law Enforcement is "One Big Family.”

 

If it is, it’s a classic dysfunctional family. Secrets abound, masks are the norm, and departmental betrayal is seen as one of law enforcement's greatest stressors.

 

Much education is needed within this "police family."  Far too many officers continue to condemn police suicides as the acts of "cowards," "weaklings" and worse.  Too many turn their backs on the wives and children of officers lost to suicide, as though these innocents somehow brought shame upon the department.

 

Until education on suicide, its dynamics and real impacts, both on the victim and the family, are brought to bear--seriously--on both the troops and police administrators, these crude traditions will continue.  Until then, until we accept all of our fallen heroes into the fold, we are not a "family"--at best, we are a "community." 

 

           

 

 

"Suicide is an angry act."   

"Suicide is a selfish act.'”

  

Suicide is a painful act. 

 

No person wants to die. For some of us, however, the choices seem so few and the pain so great that the only way of finding escape from the pain seems to be suicide. When I exchanged my gun for the telephone and went to the hospital, my first step was to begin crying—the pain was that deep. No one had told me I could do that. I was unable to see there was an alternative. 

  

 

 

 

Suicide is a "permanent solution to a temporary problem."

 

This is the worst of all.  Don't worsen the situation by giving these patronizing homilies to a depressed person.  Like "Been there, done that," you're advertising your inability to empathize with the individual's pain, which is not going to respond to quotes from the "Farmer's Almanac."  The person committing suicide had a mental disorder, and that this was not a decision made in the same way you decided to buy that big boat.  It is excruciatingly painful and performed under the influence of an overwhelming mental illness brought on by causes not a conscious choice. 

 

Being a danger to one's self does have some meaning when it comes to rational thinking.

 

  

 

 

"Police Officers Who Commit Suicide Are Cowards."

 

Far from it, many officers who take their own lives are proven heroes that have survived incidents many cops would cringe at. 

 

Still, this remark is heard often.  Again, it is a failing to understand that PTSD and depression, followed by suicide, are the actions of someone in the grips of a mental disorder--not cowardice.  The act is not their "fault" or choice--the source of their illness was brought on, often, by horrors and trauma you could not imagine.

 

In many cases, it shows a tremendous amount of fear on the part of these officers who, like any group, will take refuge in superstitions or false belief systems.  "If it can happen to Officer Smith, it could happen to me.  I don't want to believe it could happen to me, so I will dismiss Officer Smith as a weakling and a coward." 

 

  

 

Hiding suicides prevents "Copycat Police Suicides"

 

There is no evidence in the distribution of police suicides to suggest this is true, particularly in heavily populated areas where many officers know the deceased.  We see little commonality between grown police officers and teenagers, who fail to understand the permanency of death and do commit suicide in patterns that seem obvious. 

 

The media, under guidelines that see police officers as "public figures" in the same way as members of the city council or other local personalities, has a right to report on a police suicide, whether we like it or not.  It is categorized as "news" and, in most communities, police officers are seen as "public figures." The only thing "wrong" about it is when police chiefs announce, the next day, that the suicide was for personal reasons--and fail in their duty to determine the real cause by examining the history and circumstances leading up to it.

 

Finally, by hiding police suicides, departments cost more more police lives by depriving researchers of the very information they need to understand the causes and prevent them from happening.  This is criminal.