This can place tremendous strains on officers and their families. Police stress and suicide has become a topic of major concern and focus in the last few years. Across the country in the last few years, police agencies and municipalities have been clambering to initiate and implement some form of police mental health services for their officers. However, while larger urban departments can provide financial backing and manpower to its stress units, many smaller departments struggle to find ways to provide services. The everyday routine of police officers is difficult enough, but when officers are expected to handle their own problems in addition to having to be a problem solver out on the street, the officers own problems become exacerbated.
Police officers assume many roles during their tour of duty.
On any given shift, an officer may act as social worker, enforcer, protector, truant officer, nurse, etc. The majority of the public is conditioned to look to officers for protection, guidance and help. However, in many urban high crime areas, police officers are sometimes viewed as the bad guys. The research is still on-going with respect to identifying a correlation between police occupational stress and suicide, but it is generally agreed that there are some stressors unique to policing. The exact number of police suicides varies from year to year, but it is generally thought that police officers commit suicide at a much higher rate than the general public.