I would estimate that police officers kill themselves at least twice as often as the national average. I can't prove it, nor can anybody else right now. But I think a figure of twice the national average is a conservative estimate. Suicides are preventable deaths Statistics can make you crazy. You can bend them in any direction you wish.
Statistics can also demean the human side of the tragedy of suicide.
The tragedy is that these are preventable deaths. With knowledge, police families and fellow officers can help prevent suicides. But there is a lot of evidence that PTSD causes suicidal thinking. Of the more than 100 officers I interviewed who were diagnosed with PTSD, most had either entertained suicidal thoughts or had attempted suicide. Based on research, it appears that PTSD is a stimulus for suicide, that officers with PTSD often try to subdue PTSD symptoms by thinking about suicide, experimenting with suicide attempts and sometimes actually committing suicide.