Last year, more law enforcement officers died from suicide than in the line-of-duty. Sadly, suicide rates are thought to be much higher than reported – it’s widely accepted that police suicide is woefully under-reported, especially when counting those – like my husband – who commit suicide after retiring.
My husband, David Colegrove, was a law enforcement officer for 30 years. He killed himself in 2014, less than three months after he retired. Since his suicide, I’ve learned a lot about trauma, post-traumatic stress, secondary trauma, hypervigilance and the common predictors of suicide among law enforcement professionals and other first responders.
First and foremost, I’ve realized that my husband and I were sitting smack dab in the middle of all of that, and we didn’t even know it. David carried a tremendous amount of trauma that had roots in his early years, grew exponentially throughout his police career and affected all areas of his life.
The impacts of trauma
Trauma happens when someone experiences or witnesses abuse, victimization, neglect, loss, violence and disasters. Unfortunately, the majority of first responders experience some kind of trauma during their career and it can be toxic to them mentally and emotionally.
In my husband’s first year of policing, when he was only 21 years old, he was involved in a shooting and someone died. He was called into the police station, where his badge and gun were taken away and he was sent home. For days he did not know what was going to happen. Then he got a call telling him he had been cleared and should report to roll call the next day. And that was that. Back to work. No counseling, no conversation and no support of any kind.
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See Also:
(1) The greatest loss: Police suicides
(2) 4 things police leaders should be doing to stop police suicide
(3) Building a culture of resiliency from the top down
(4) Integrating officer suicide prevention into in-service training
(5) Calif. PD working to get officer who killed himself recognized on memorials
