Police Suicide: why are the Rates in Some Places so low? (In: Suicide and Law Enforcement, edited by D C Sheehan & J I Warren)

The published literature on police suicide contains serious measurement problems that undermine understanding, including: unreliability of small samples, lack of statistical significance testing, comparison of different time periods, use of different data sources, use of different summary measures, comparison to inappropriate norms, & misclassification of suicides as accidents. The authors suggest solutions for these problem in the interest of improved understanding & subsequent reduction of police suicide. Low police suicide rates appear to be associated with effective selection, training, supervision, & support. JA