Resource Tag: POLICE

Objectives. To examine the perceived benefits of and barriers to law enforcement agencies providing increased access to voluntary and temporary firearm storage. Methods. We surveyed 448 police chiefs and sheriffs in 8 US Mountain West states about firearm storage practices, benefits of and barriers to storage, and related attitudes and beliefs. Data collection occurred during the spring […]

The goal of this book is to help officers to assess and intervene in the safest way possible when facing situations involving people who show signs of emotionally disturbed behaviour. This booklet will assist officers in identifying emotionally disturbed behavior; provide guidance on interacting with someone who is emotionally disturbed; establish risk management strategies for […]

In this second edition of Police Suicide: Epidemic in Blue, the author brings together �old and new� information on police suicide and he introduces some promising findings. In doing so, he clarifies some issues and provides a source of information for police officers, administrators, and academic researchers. In this lucidly written book of ten chapters, […]

Recent evidence suggests that police victimization is widespread in the USA and psychologically impactful. We hypothesized that civilian-reported police victimization, particularly assaultive victimization (i.e., physical/sexual), would be associated with a greater prevalence of suicide attempts and suicidal ideation. Data were drawn from the Survey of Police-Public Encounters, a population-based survey of adults (N = 1615) residing in […]

This strategy will serve as an overarching approach for the VPD. It is intended to account for the significant impact that can result from people living with mental illness coming into contact with the police, and set forth a framework on how the VPD models its interaction with this segment of the population. That is […]

First responders, police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and paramedics, experience significant job-related stressors and exposures that may confer increased risk for mental health morbidities (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD, suicidal thoughts and behaviors) and hastened mortality (e.g., death by suicide). Inherent in these occupations, however, are also factors (e.g., camaraderie, pre-enlistment screening) that […]

Early responders play a vital role in supporting people who have lost someone they care about, someone they know who has died by suicide. Suicide loss is profoundly different than other loss and grief in that it is a intentional act that can have crippling effects for the family, friends and other survivors. Contact us […]

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Provoking police officers to kill oneself or Òsuicide by copÓ (SBC) has received scholarly as well as public attention. The extent to which film representations of SBC reflect SBC in society in relation to danger, depression, and other features was assessed in this study. Data on cinematic portrayals of SBC are from 16 American films; […]

Death, Value and Meaning Series

Series editor: Dale Lund

Police services in Ontario were surveyed to learn about changes in volume of contacts with persons with mental illness & use of pre-arrest diversion practices between 2003-2007. Information was also gathered on calls received & cleared that involved suicide threats, attempts, & completions. Findings indicated a trend of increasing police encounters with persons with mental […]

This report is on the activities & outcomes from Phase I & II of the People at Risk of Suicide Project. Phase I presents highlights from a one-day conference, highlights from a literature review, presentation of a draft report, & implications for general hospital psychiatric services. Phase 2 discusses the development of a provincial fast […]

This chapter explores the medical examiner’s investigative process leading to the final manner of death determination in a “death at the hands of police”. A comparison of police shooting cases investigated by several Chief Medical Examiner’s offices in a large metropolitan area reveals that it varies by office & by examiner. The final classification by […]

The frequency & characteristics of suicide-by-cop cases among a nonrandom sample of 707 North American officer-involved shootings were investigated. 36% of the officer-involved shootings in the sample were found to be suicide-by-cop with high interrater agreement for category classification. Suicide-by-cop cases were more likely to result in the death or injury of the subjects. Most […]

This chapter presents & discusses a set of training materials for police departments aimed at helping police officers cope with victim-precipitated homicide. Materials focus on providing officers with a range of intervention strategies to attempt to reduce the risk associated with these situations for both the officer & the perpetrator. These strategies are intended to […]

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This chapter discusses the suicide-by-cop syndrome & the role of training. Law enforcement agencies need to provide training that will improve safety, performance, & awareness. A primary concern for law enforcement trainers is properly addressing the balance between giving information & possibly generating hesitation on the part of the officer to react appropriately. In training […]

Without the ability to predict the exact moment of lethal action, crisis interveners frequently & unknowingly sacrifice personal safety in efforts to stop a suicide. Case studies suggest when specific behaviours are present, individually or collectively, a suicidal act is imminent. These behaviours include change in respiratory rate, hyper vigilance, & counting down/up either verbally […]

This chapter suggests that the violent video games written by Eric Harris (one of the Columbine High School shooters) represented an externalization of his mindset. Computer games allow for the creation of individual scenarios & a self-destructive game may be created. Access to these scenarios may prevent suicidal or violent behaviour. They may be profiled […]

Humour is a highly specialized psychological response to the stress of human tragedy. This chapter reports personal observations of police humour encountered in more than 2500 suicide investigations; describes the red, yellow, greeen, & white zones of primitive, immature, adolescent, & mature humour; relates these zones to officer maturity; gives examples of each zone, & […]

Crisis negotiators in California who had been involved in the past 5 years in incidents in which the suspect died by suicide completed a questionnaire & provided information about: anxiety symptoms during the incident; formal support afterwards; informal support from co-workers, supervisors, administrators, & investigators; long-term effects of the incident in the form of posttrauamtic […]

This chapter makes 3 points: training can inoculate against grief & helplessness in suicide by cop situations; value-based policing with regard to authority & citizenship security is a teachable moral code that does not violate personal rights or officer safety; & retraining for those with past experience in the military needs to be evaluated because […]

The authors created a typology of suicide by police by separating 143 such incidents from a database of 174 police shooting incidents. The 143 incidents consisted of 3 categories: direct confrontations; disturbed interventions; & criminal interventions. Direct confrontations presented a lower level of danger to police, but there was a high variability within this category. […]