When the officer is arrested for shoplifiting before he commits suicide, the press is told about the shoplifting.  They are not told about the 20 years of carnage, horror and death that the officer endured.  "He was an officer "gone bad."  They are not told about how many critical incidents he endured or the soul wounding of years of cumulative trauma. 

We urge you to read John Violanti's recent article about our "forgotten" officers on the memorial wall. 

Because of the unwillingness of departments to acknowledge that police suicides could actually be the result of the job, we have stepped forward to begin a new category, called "Line of Duty Police Suicides (LODS)."  This is the first first step in recognizing the true cause of these tragedies, the depth of the wounds these officers suffered, and hopefully open the door to caring properly for the surviving families of these officers who fell to horrific soul wounds from their work.

We believe that if rebuttable presumptions can be so handily made for heart attacks and strokes, it should be no giant leap of faith to presume that a sizeable number of our suicides are due to the job.   If, however, a department disagrees, they are welcome to present the evidence to support statements that it was "personal," "family problems," or a "good officer gone bad."

A preliminary review of 2008 police suicides by Badge of Life suggests a minimum of 33 percent are work related.  Departments insist that none are work related.

No one wants to talk about this.  It is not a popular issue.

Most truths are not.

"It is not how these officers died that made them heroes, it is how they lived."

...or so we like to say.

This is inscribed at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Foundation (NLEOMF) Wall.  Wouldn't it be nice if we truly believed that?   

Cops generously hand the title of "hero" to those who die for countless reasons--as long as it's not a trauma-related suicide.  How he or she lived is of no interest when it comes to suicide--think about it.  The officer may have been the greatest hero on the face of the earth and the ultimate tribute to law enforcement--but if he suffered PTSD as a result, regardless of the police suicide variables, became deeply depressed and overcome by the horrors of the incidents and took his own life, we call him a "coward" and deny him a place on the wall.

On the other hand, an officer could be the greatest slacker in uniform and be run over in the doughnut shop parking lot and we laud him with the title of "Hero," provide him a motorcade and tributes by the governor and every police officer within 500 miles, and inscribe his name on the Memorial Wall.

A classic example of a "line of duty suicide" is that of a Massachussetts State Trooper (read "Paul McCarthy"), who suffered multiple, unspeakable on-duty injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.  His suicide went ignored, his heroism forgotten, his dedication and kindness shunned aside--one of law enforcement's many "forgotten heroes."

Another example of this is a California Highway Patrol suicide in April, 2009. Officer of the Year, recipient of the Medal of Valor for Heroism and other awards, Aaron Gilliland died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2009. In 2002, he had arrived at the scene of an overturned, burning vehicle.  He was able to carry the elderly driver to safety, but returned to find the passenger trapped.  In extricating the woman, the growing flames around him burned his uniform and hair.  Finally freeing her, he fell and broke his back.  Within seconds of the rescue, the entire vehicle burst into flames. He was remembered as an excellent officer--an obvious fact.   

	Officer Aaron Gilliland

• In 2008, this hero had written, "We see a lot of horrible things on a day to day basis from death which happens a lot where I work from infants to adults, people under the influence of many things and the horrible things people do to each other. We are out on the streets and highways where just by making a stop can end your life. I knew some Officers get killed by just being being on the right shoulder of the highway and get ran over by a dui driver or just careless one. Nobody cares for us until they need us. We are human just like everbody else."  

• Will his name go on the Memorial Wall?  No.     

These are only two examples of what has gone on for years. It's a national police suicide problem. Police agencies have shunned their officers who have given their "all" in the line of duty and died of the "soul wounds" that are just as fatal as the heart attacks and strokes that are so readily accepted as "line of duty."  Instead of a Memorial Wall, these heroes, their spouses and their children are shunned instead of honored by their departments as they so richly deserve. 

No, no one wants to talk about this.  It is not a popular issue.

Most truths are not.

Tragically, two-thirds of these officers' symtoms escaped detection during 2008.  Signs and symptoms were noticed by departments in others but they died anyway.  We believe that, if departments will fill in the "other half of the formula" (by adding the ESC educational component alongside the suicide prevention programs), we can finally begin to see a reduction in police suicides. We hope departments will say it is worth the prevention of these deaths, the relief of the misery among their officers on the streets, the widows being cast out in disgrace.  We hope.

We do not provide therapy, nor are we a "hot line" for those in crisis.  We are an educational, research and consulting/advisory service on programs. If you are in crisis, call the National Hot Line at 1-800-273-8255.