Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna/Damian Dovarganes/AP
2023.11.13 Mon posted at 21:18 JST
(CNN) Four current and former employees of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in California committed suicide in a 24-hour period from the 6th to the 7th. When Omar Delgado, a former police officer, heard the story, he thought he understood.
“It’s like a pressure cooker. If you don’t let the steam out little by little, it will end up in a big explosion.”
Delgado was one of the first police officers to arrive at the scene of a shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, on June 12, 2016. The trauma of this incident caused him to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and he attempted suicide twice.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced that homicide detectives are separately investigating the deaths of three employees and one former employee. The names of the deceased employees have not been released.
Richard Pippin, president of the county’s police association, said the four deaths did not appear to be related to each other.
There was no precedent for such a series of suicides within the same organization in such a short period of time. Experts say there is a need to strengthen the ability of police officers to receive mental health care when they need it.
The four deaths are another blow to an already demoralized and severely understaffed sheriff’s office. The current situation is that people are quitting from the hiring side.
Police officers sometimes work up to 70 hours a week, which Pippin describes as “a hard, stressful job where you don’t get to see your family.”
This isn’t limited to Los Angeles. Police departments across the U.S. have struggled to recruit and retain officers since the coronavirus pandemic, and even more so since 2020, when riots erupted after a black man was assaulted and killed by a police officer.
Police officers are in a position where they have to respond to call after call and deal with people in difficult situations.
According to Pippin, nine people have committed suicide at the sheriff’s office this year, significantly more than one in 2022, three in 2021, and two in 2020.
A study by John Violanti, a professor at the University at Buffalo School of Public Health who is an expert on police stress, found that police officers have a 54% higher risk of suicide than the general public.
However, police officers are hesitant to talk about it, fearing it will affect their work.
“Officers know that if they send someone into the public carrying a gun who they know is emotionally and psychologically challenged, they’re going to have liability concerns as an organization,” Pippin said.
Charles Ramsey, the former head of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, says this is the result of stigma around mental health that is deeply ingrained in police culture. Police say the culture is to “suck it up and move on.”
Omar Delgado visits a memorial site for the victims of the nightclub shooting in Orlando, June 23, 2016.
Ramsey once attended a crime scene where five people were murdered and witnessed the devastation firsthand.
“It’s not normal to see something like that,” Ramsey said. “So you suppress all emotions. But it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. If you let them go, they accumulate over time.”
Mr. Ramsey also went on to head the Philadelphia Police Department and instituted mandatory annual checks with mental health experts. That’s when he saw officers volunteer for second and third follow-up interviews, he said.
“Those who need it most are the least likely to reach out and ask for help,” Ramsey said.
Michael Harrison, a former police chief in Baltimore and New Orleans, said small changes in an officer’s behavior, appearance, demeanor or work style can be signs that they may need help.
“They’re already going through something emotionally, mentally, spiritually. When they come and say they want help, we don’t want to have a policy that punishes them,” Harrison said.
Dr. Jeff Thompson, a researcher at Columbia University Medical Center and a former NYPD hostage negotiator, said it is “potentially dangerous” to reduce police suicide to a single cause, saying “stress, He cautioned that the disease should be seen as a combination of untreated mental illnesses.
According to Blue HELP, a website that tracks police suicides in the United States, 86 police officers have committed suicide this year. But founder Karen Solomon says police have a bias against reporting mental health problems, and the number of reports is at least 25% lower.
Despite ongoing efforts to reduce stigma, officers still feel uncomfortable disclosing mental health issues to their superiors.
Delgado responded to the scene of the nightclub shooting and witnessed the horror of the scene where 49 people were shot dead and dozens injured. Delgado was trapped inside the club with the deceased for hours as a standoff with the gunman ensued.
Although Delgado was praised for his actions on the scene, he was unable to work for six months.
Although he finally returned to office work, by the end of 2017 he had retired from the police force, where he had worked for nearly 10 years, due to his PTSD. A doctor hired by police said Delgado was deemed “unfit for duty.” He now works for a private security company.
The nightclub shooting was a turning point for officers to open up about their mental health concerns and seek help, Delgado said. But Delgado’s dismissal made other officers think the same thing could happen to them.
“I kept having those nightmares and couldn’t stop seeing those bodies. I couldn’t control my mind or my heart,” Delgado said. “Isn’t there a way to get rid of it slowly, even if it takes a year?” “Everyone is too scared to say anything. No one wants to get fired.”
#people #commit #suicide #hours #pressure #cooker #calls #mental #health #care #police #officers
2023-11-13 12:18:00
