Police suicide has been an issue forever – I served with people who ended their own life and with people who tried to do so. I used powers under the Mental Health Act to protect police officers who were a risk to themselves and tried to make sure they got the help they needed, I know of officers I’ve personally supervised who were detained by their colleagues under s136 MHA and some known to me who were “sectioned” and spent time in hospital because they were a risk to themselves and I can’t think of any of them I wouldn’t describe as a good officer I’d be happy to have policing an incident involving me or my family.
You can read back the first two sentences and replace the word “police” with “armed services”, too – different specifics and context, but same issue: suicide is a major and often undiscussed issue and nationally we know it’s especially an issue for men, who account for three-quarters of all suicide and we know it’s the biggest killer of men under 50.
Most police officers are men – and most of them are under 50.
WHAT DO WE KNOW?
Last I checked, the National Police Chiefs Council does not know how many serving officers die by suicide – this mostly because police forces don’t all collect data, what is collected is known to be inaccurate so it’s no fault of NPCC they don’t publish data because they can only publish what forces send them and I’m given to understand some just aren’t counting this.
In my experience, police officers are mostly recruited from certain demographics and I don’t just mean the protected characteristics we hear about so much in trying to create a representative service, especially sex, race and religion. Social class and education levels also matter to risk predication around suicide and police officers are typically working or lower-middle class and not university educated. (I don’t think you need to be for the profession itself; I’m make the point merely as a predictor of suicide.) Renowned criminologist of policing, Professor Robert Reiner, touched upon that extensively when he wrote a whole book in the 1990s called “Chief Constables” where he looked at all these issues for those who reach the highest rank.
Most of the people I served with were – like me – white, working class men and most are under 50 and not usually university educated, doing a job which is higher up the risk list of jobs with an above-average suicide rate. Makes it all the more remarkable police forces don’t always monitor this.
THE BLUE LIGHT PROGRAMME
Do you remember about a decade ago when the mental health charity Mind launched the Blue Light programme?
It was funded by money paid in fines by the banks after the 2008 financial crisis and the government wanted to see greater support for blue light services – and not just the big three 999 services, but including coastguard, search and rescue, etc. I was asked to sit on the external advisory board for it and the first thing Mind did was search the literature for what is known. Turns out, not much is known in proper research so Mind went about doing some of their own: online questionnaires, focus groups and some one-to-one interviews with professionals from all the services they were asked to support and then reported their findings.
I was transfixed on the NPCC wellbeing lead – he looked very awkward as Mind’s Director of Research summarised the findings because for all the faults and problems they’d uncovered for the Fire and Ambulance services, policing was an order of magnitude worse off for what frontline officers were saying about their experiences. Fifty percent (yes, 50%!) of officers thought their line manager would make things worse, not better if they chose to disclose their problems or seek help.
Fifty percent!
Ninety percent (yes, 90%!) of officers stated they “would not inform their line manager or employer about a mental health problem if they retained a choice about whether to do so.”
Ninety percent!
The main reasons given were things like “career or life altering consequences” because of assumptions which would then be made. “They’ll take my driving grade off me”, “I won’t be allowed to join firearms in the future” or “I’ll be judged as weak or incompetent forever more”. Many went further: they wouldn’t disclose to their GP, either – because there are scenarios in some police officers’ careers where medical checks are re-done as part of recruitment processes to specialist roles, things like firearms. “If I see my GP for help, the job might find out in five years’ time when it’s no longer an issue and it won’t do me any favours then.” etc.
The Fire and Ambulance leads were just stunned to see how different the police was to their own organisations and visibly shocked at some of the updates – and a little relieved it wasn’t them.
BLUE LIGHT STORIES
Mind went about producing promotional literature, they set up a specific helpline for 999 professionals and tried to raise awareness through social media, posters in police stations, etc. They also asked all Chief Constables to “sign up” to the programme, which they all duly did, committing to doing what they could about police officer mental health and wellbeing.
One thing bothered me about it at the time and it bothers me now – the emphasis of traumatic police work as a cause of mental-ill health in police officers, some of which are drivers towards suicide in the end.
Now: I saw some pretty horrible sh*t in my career, some of which I will never forget.
I saw a news article last year about a man who self-immolated and I found myself having an actual physical reaction where I was transported immediately back to February 2014 and an appalling incident where a man set fire to himself in front of me and two of my officers and we had to put him out with jackets. He died a couple of weeks later from his injuries and we got investigated as criminal suspects for trying to save him. It was all completely horrible but I joined the police knowing I’d see some horrible sh*t and it didn’t take long to process it enough to (more-or-less) box it away. Didn’t stop me having a small, visceral reaction to it ten years later though.
IT’S NOT POLICING – IT’S THE POLICE
But what compounded that incident for me was treatment afterwards: little-to-no welfare follow up, what did happen was a welfare question in a corridor where other officers were walking by – not really a place for a discussion that might be sensitive or which might just be preferred as private and for no other reason than its own sake.
This kind of thing fits with research we know has been done. Years ago, I heard a Dutch psychiatrist present on the topic of policing and officer mental health: he started off trotting out every hackneyed old trope about traumatic incidents, police work is unavoidably pathologising, etc., and I was getting ready to start reading my phone because he seemed serious. Then he said something: “Of course, all that’s bullsh*t – that’s what police chiefs want you to think.” He went on to explain his son was a Dutch police officer and he’d been astounded as a research psychiatrist how police organisations explain away their staff sickness.
The Blue Light programme push by individual police forces gave us plenty of this, too, despite what Mind had said – “Bob is a response sergeant in Gateshead with twelve years’ service. A few years ago, he began to feel the cumulative impact of all the violence and trauma incidents he’s attended as a police officer and reached out to get support for this mental health”, etc. There will no doubt be police officers with the kind of experience of my hypothetical friend Sergeant Bob had and I don’t seek to diminish that – not for a moment.
WHAT’S GOING ON?
Plenty of police officers may well be affected by the work they do and we know some officers are at even greater risk than the average, especially those dealing with child sexual offences, firearms officers and so on. Working 24/7 for three years as a “tactical firearms commander” turned my head inside out with pressure – obvious potential there, if mixed with other factors to break someone and that job – “the most demanding job in the force” certainly has done that.
But it is wrong we see little to no acknowledgement of the impact of the police organisation on the mental health of its officers, including on senior police officers who have died by suicide, some of them known to me personally as well. We know, for example, officers under prolonged and protracted investigation by the IOPC or PSD have taken their own lives because of the strain they are placed under for extended periods of time. HM Coroner’s have issued Preventing Future Death reports about this – more than once.
And we don’t treat police suicide as a police contact death even where the force is busy doing things to its officers which would be considered a contact death for IOPC purposes if similar was done to a member of the public or where police organisational failings have contributed to a police officer’s preventable death.
WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON?
So – we don’t really know! That’s the reality – we don’t understand the complex causes because we dismiss the reality of police suicide, we won’t discuss it and we fail to look inward at how police officers are driven to a point where they feel they have no other option despite evidence making it obvious we should look inward. Things can all too easily be made far worse for officers, regardless of the specific cause of their difficulties which can be personal as well as professional.
My heart continues to go out to the families and friends of those I’ve known and served with who are living in the aftermath of suicide and it goes out to those who are having to newly face this nightmare after recent sad events. This needs far, far greater attention by Chief Constables who need to get beyond the tropes and understand the reality of how their organisations sometimes cause and usually contribute to the difficulties their officers face. A few appear to get it, a few don’t but with most it’s just too difficult to tell and it shouldn’t be.
NB: I’ve not mentioned specific recent cases here which may be relevant to the topic: I simply don’t know enough about them to know they are relevant examples to the points I’m making here.
Awarded the President’s Medal, by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation.
(c) Michael Brown, 2025
I am not a police officer.
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