Suicidal Cops Often Reluctant to Seek Help

Suicidal Cops Often Reluctant to Seek Help
State suicide prevention report puts police in a high-risk category for suicide. More officers commit suicide every year than are killed in the line of duty.
By Daryl Nerl

The Pennsylvania suicde prevention report says police officers are three to four times more likely to commit suicide than everyone else and that more cops – an estimated 300 every year – die by their own hand than by homicide, though they acknowledge that “data is often hard to obtain.”

The apparent suicide of Bethlehem Police Officer Frank A. Rossnagle over the weekend is a reminder that the stress cops live with daily can too often lead to similar tragedies.

At the same time, police officers are too often reluctant to get help because of the stigma attached to needing it, according to a 2006 official state report on suicide prevention, which identified law enforcement officers as having a higher than normal risk of suicide.

Rossnagle’s is the second high-profile suicide in the Lehigh Valley in the past three months.

Political activist and businessman Charles Snelling killed himself in March after killing his wife, Adrienne, who had been suffering with Alzheimer’s disease. Family members said he could no longer bear to watch his wife suffer.
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