Reactions About Police Suicide

Reactions about police suicide

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Reactions about police suicide

Recently, there have been several cases of police suicide across the country. Every day we read from newspapers, videos of several situations where a law enforcer has taken his or her life. This is surprising because of the image, which people perceive police officers in the society. Normally, the public relate police officers to toughness, authority, serious and strict law implementers. The public cannot believe that behind such a string face and strictness of the police shows the public, there is a hidden suffering of innocent people. Research indicates that police officers suffer a lot of trauma and depression, which in several occasions have caused death and continue to take majority of them from the force CITATION Mil12 \l 1033 (Miller, 2012). Many police officers who suffer from depression, stress and trauma fear sharing with their colleagues for fear of being victimize and eventually lose their jobs. However, the causes of suicide among the police officers could be trauma, and depression which occur because of pressure from work, balancing between family and work and alcoholism.

Research shows that the rate of suicide among the police officers has increased within the last decade CITATION Cha13 \l 1033 (Chae & Boyle, 2013). I also often see video and read from Newspapers cases of suicide within the police force. These cases have increased due to stress, which has increased among the police officers. Police like any other person, suffers from personal problems, which requires special attention to help a police officer overcome personal problems. The stress is related to work, family issues, and personal problems. It is therefore, evident that police officers suffer the same condition which other people face in real live. Waking early in the morning with distressful news of an officer who has committed is so destructive and it is a situation which police officers experience daily at work. Police officers suffer from stress from work and family related issues. Studies have shown that police fear to share being of being judged by their colleagues. Stress and depression also affect the reasoning and behavior of people and therefore, police officer suffering from depression or stress cannot be trusted to deliver the duty of police officer and therefore, revealing their mental health could cause someone his or her work. This has increased the number of police officers with mental issues within the police force.

It is important for the police department to establish the best and suitable mechanism of addressing cases of suicide within the police force. In order to solve the problem, the police department must first understand that police officers can suffer from stress and depression just like other people and therefore, they should not be victimized. It is because many police officers suffer in silence due to victimization and this could lead to broken police office where poor judgments are made. Sigmund Feud argues that mental health is rational and without proper controls through monitoring and examination it can explode CITATION Mic18 \l 1033 (Miller M. E., 2018). It could be cases of police shooting of civilians are as a result of unstable mental status of police officers. It is important to make sure that police are mentality examine and this could only be established when police department is open for change to accept the condition of police officers.

In order to address the problem of suicide within the police force, the police department must established the best way to detect symptoms and condition of stress, depression and trauma among its officers CITATION Cha13 \l 1033 (Chae & Boyle, 2013). With early detection of trauma and all these conditions, which can make a police officer to commit suicide, the police department would be able to solve the problem address trauma and create an environment where police can work with fewer difficulties. Studies show that police officers have been sacked before of mental health condition, and this has made many police officers to fear of anyone knowing their mental statues. In many cases, a police reports his or her mental health chances and the next day, he or she is asked to go for a leave. Personality, I do not think this makes sense at all. There must be a mechanism to provide mental health support to the law enforcers.

The best strategy would be the establishment of the mental health clinic for law enforcers and also to have psychiatric working together within the police department to help in solving problems related to mental health issues CITATION Lau06 \l 1033 (Miller L. , 2006). I believe the causes of increase of suicide cases within the police are the victimization. Without victimization the police officer would be willing to share their fear with their colleagues and superiors for help. First, it would important to accept mental health as a key issue within the police and accept police officer undergoing such condition CITATION Mic18 \l 1033 (Miller M. E., 2018). It would be essential to establish clinic within the police to help solve their problem. Besides the work environment, time schedule and other benefits should be provided to the law enforcers so that they can feel comfort like other workers and this would help in addressing the problem of mental health issues hence reduce cases of suicide, which has been common within the police department for years.

In conclusion, the suicide rate among the police officers has been on rise. The suicide is caused by stress, depression and trauma, which many police officers undergo every single day. It is therefore, important for the police department to help in addressing the problem, through the establishment of counseling and mentorship program within the police force. It is also important to stop victimization of police officer having stress and depression and this would help in reducing cases of suicide within the police force.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Chae, M. H., & Boyle, D. J. (2013). Police suicide: Prevalence, risk, and protective factors. Policing An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management , 2-15.

Miller, L. (2006). Officer-Involved Shooting: Reaction Patterns, Response Protocols, and Psychological Intervention Strategies . International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, , 2-15.

Miller, L. W. (2012). Police officer suicide: causes, prevention, and practical intervention strategies. Published in International journal of emergency mental health , 2-35.

Miller, M. E. (2018). Months after a fatal police shooting, a young officer turns his gun on himself. 2-15.