ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the work of Bruce Danto, Robert Loo, John Violanti, and Peter Marzuk. Bruce Danto, a psychiatrist and an officer, studied the suicides in police in Detroit, Michigan. Police services need comprehensive mental health supports. Much, indeed, can be done to prevent suicide among police. The rates of suicide in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) from 1984 to 1995 continued to be lower compared with the rate of the general population in Canada. The stressors often identified in the suicides of the RCMP were alcohol abuse, depression, marital problems, financial difficulties, legal problems unrelated to work, illness, and a family member committing suicide. “Officers who feel that they can no longer tolerate psychological pain choose to solve problems themselves through suicide rather than asking for help”. There are barriers/walls; there are also the effects, the sting, on survivors.