Police suicide: Causes, effects, and intervention. An educational program for police officers in the early identification and intervention of suicidal behavior

The suicide rate for police officers has been recently reported to be three times higher than that of the general population. However there has been and there continues to be considerable difficulty completing this research. In addition small police departments and the training academies that these officers attend are reluctant to provide training and intervention programs to officers that may be in crisis.; If the small police department is to seriously address the issue of police suicide, the department must look beyond the studies of the large cities and organizations, and look to the basic police recruit training and in-service training. Programs must be designed and employed that identifies and addresses the needs for a person in crisis. The New Jersey the Police Training Commission which certifies all New Jersey police officers, requires only one hour for formal training on stress management and no discussion on police suicide. This is disturbing when there are over eighty hours that are spent on the use of deadly force, eighty hours on first aid, and 100 hours on physical fitness, that are required of every police recruit. There are no municipal departments in central New Jersey that has suicide awareness training for its officers.; The subject of this dissertation develops a response to the tragedy of police officers killing themselves by developing a suicide awareness program that can be taught to recruits in the basic police training program and to develop a suicide awareness program for officers already working in the small police department. Through this awareness training, recruits and officers will be in a better position to recognize signs of depression and hopelessness that can lead to suicide.; When this curriculum is adopted and used in the basic police training program and is used by police agencies in on going in-service training, this program has the potential to alter the number of police suicides and have a direct effect on the high cost on the on individual, family, organization, and the public when a police officer decides to take his or her life.