Law Enforcement Suicides Expose Gaps In Mental Health Support

After two officers he had worked with during a 20-year stint in the U.S. Marine Corps took their own lives, Dustin Schellenger researched what mental health resources were available to his friends, both of whom were first responders when they died. “The answer was— a whole lot of nothing,” said Schellenger, who directs the Texas Law Enforcement Peer Network, a state-funded program offering anonymous support to police officers across Texas, the Texas Tribune reports. That network came out of a growing understanding that Texas’ police officers, jailers and first responders face significant psychological pressure and minimal emotional support. Over six weeks this year, four current and former Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies died by suicide. The string of tragedies made national news and highlighted a problem Schellenger and other law enforcement veterans know: officers need help — even if they don’t ask for it. Law enforcement officers are 54% more likely to die from suicide than people in other professions, according to a 2021 analysis in the National Library of Medicine. Texas led the U.S. in law enforcement officer suicides in 2022. While state lawmakers attempted to address the issue by funding the Texas Law Enforcement Peer Network in 2021 and requiring officers to complete training on mental health, critical gaps remain.

Texas is among a handful of states that fund a peer-support program and requires law enforcement officers to complete a wellness course to maintain their license. Those programs are insufficient to mitigate officers’ stress because they don’t target workplace culture or proactively check in on officers who are exposed to violence every day, said Reuben Ramirez, former assistant Dallas police chief and author of a book about how to create healthier cultures in first responder agencies. “It’s an audacious request to ask these men and women to come forward if they’re struggling,” Ramirez said. “There’s 150 years worth of empirical data that says that if you come forward … that might not work out in your favor.” Some law enforcement agencies, including the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, have created internal wellness units. Peer support specialists check in on officers after they deal with certain critical incidents and try to emphasize to officers that it’s OK to sometimes not be OK — an effort to chip away at decades of stigma against mental health. Those programs have funding shortages and coverage gaps. Retired officers are one demographic that is top of mind for Dr. Thomas McNeese, who runs the Harris County sheriff’s Behavioral Health Division that was launched in 2020. Retired officers are not typically checked on even though they are particularly vulnerable to mental health issues. They suddenly “lose their identity, their social connections, all these different things,” McNeese said, as they are confronted with an excess of time to process years of accumulated trauma.