Suicide by Cop

Suicide by cop occurs when people want to die but do not want to kill themselves. So they put themselves in a position where a police officer is forced to shoot them. According to James J. Drylie, Ph.D. in a recent study in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, one-third of the roughly 300 justifiable police shootings that occur annually around the nation could be characterized as “suicide by cop”. Suicide by cop is a growing trend that needs to be mitigated by proper police training and greater understanding from the community.

Whenever an officer makes use of his/her legal liberty to use their firearm, the first thought that comes to the public’s mind is homicide or murder. However, the reality is that not all officers are trained for the eventuality of a suicide by cop attempt. Occasionally, when in danger their emotions take control of their mind creating an image of potential threat. When we consider that in 80 percent of the cases the suicidal person is armed with a deadly weapon, and 60 percent of the time the weapon of choice is a firearm (50 percent of which were loaded), it is no wonder that untrained and ill-equipped officers are unable to resolve any of these situations without the use of deadly force, let alone establish the appropriate psychiatric intervention. When faced by a suicidal victim, many officers feel threatened, have tunnel vision, and become nervous and indecisive. This, despite the fact that most cases involve police response to reports of persons attempting suicide, and in many cases, the victim placed a 911 call requesting suicide by cop.

In cases where the victim poses a serious threat to the lives of officers and others, suicide by cop is entirely justifiable. In many instances, the timing, speed at which the encounter escalated and officer's perception of immediate danger to self or others left him or her with no choice but to use deadly force. One such case is where a polite and attractive young woman walks up to a police officer to within six feet in a hospital parking lot, pulls her gun out of her purse and aims it at the officer’s chest.

Where the victim poses a threat only to himself, suicide by cop is not justifiable. It should never be a case of “we will kill you before you kill yourself”. Last month a man was shot and killed by police after an alleged confrontation with police. The man got into an argument with roommates over the house rules and threatened them with a knife. Officers were called to assist and they located him a short ways away from the house. Records show that earlier this year the same man attempted suicide by laying on the railroad tracks in front of a freight train. When arrested he told police he intended to fight with them so they’d have to shoot him.

Police officers must not react with deadly force to despondent individuals suffering from suicidal tendencies, depression, mental illness or extreme substance abuse even when acting in a manner to elicit such force. This precaution must be particularly observed, where the victim stated his intention.

With proper training, police officers ought to become aware of the profiles of perpetrators of suicide by cop. Studies have shown that 98 percent of victims are male, 58 percent asked to be killed by police, 39 percent had a history of domestic violence, 38 percent had previously attempted suicide, 50 percent were intoxicated, 38 percent had a criminal history, 40 percent had a history of mental illness with 60 percent showed compelling evidence of depression, and almost 40 percent talked about homicide and suicide with the officers involved. The typical victim’s crisis episode is usually precipitated by the rupture of some important family, employment, or other relationship, which leads to feelings of hopelessness, anger, and despair.

The first responders’ approach to a crisis situation is crucial. Police officers must be able to assess the situation, establish contact and determine the main problem, evaluate the suicide risk, talk the subject down, and consider non-lethal containment. A variety of LTLs, or less-than-lethal weapons and containment technologies now exist, and more are coming on the market all the time. Police officers must be given the training necessary to use these safely. To help the officers assess the situation, police dispatch centers must speedily conduct background checks and dispatch this information to officers at the scene. One officer wrote:

"I hope you find some solution to this problem. As a police officer with 30 years experience, I had never heard the phrase, until it happened to me. Left me with mixed emotions. It was a family feud that had been going on for months…I only went there this time to remove small children. I was met at the front door by subject with a semi-automatic SKS rifle…When told to put the gun down numerous times, he refused and pointed the weapon at my partner and me. We both fired our weapons at the same time from less tha[n] three feet.

An investigation by an outside agency turned up the fact the suspect wanted to commit suicide…I think if I had been aware of this situation, I could have handled it different[ly] as senior officer on scene. I am not trying to second-guess this situation. I just feel that with some type of preparation or schooling, I might have handled the situation differently.”

It is time police authorities begin to take notice of the long-range detrimental effects these dangerous incidents have on the police officers involved, and start the process of sharing of information, training and raising awareness among police agencies.