When the Badge Becomes a Burden: The Hidden Crisis Behind the Uniform

The Time of Year Nobody Wants to Talk About

As the holiday season approaches the city is lit up with festive lights and bustling streets filled with people celebrating the season. However, the people on the street are not all celebrating the same way. For many of them who wear the badge and enforce the laws, the season can be much more difficult than it appears to be. Data across the country shows that Law Enforcement is one of the top occupations at highest risk of suicide. Also, according to the national data, between Thanksgiving and New Years (a time when families come together) the risk of suicide within Law Enforcement grows quiet and more deadly.

A crisis is growing in New York. As of this year, eight police officers in New York State (and many retired officers) have taken their own lives by committing suicide. Projections indicate that New York may surpass the 13 officer suicides from last year. The numbers do not appear on an annual report, these are men and women who were fathers, mothers, partners, and friends before taking an oath to protect society. The badge that represented courage has now been turned into a heavy burden of silence.

The Toll of Constant Exposure

A law enforcement officer's mental health can be influenced not only by the traumatic experiences he/she witnesses first hand, but also by the political pressure and public/media perceptions associated with these traumatic events. The average police officer will encounter approximately 178 traumatic incidents throughout their career as a law enforcement officer; however, that number may be substantially higher for many officers (as high as 400 to 800). While the average civilian will experience only two or three traumatic events in their lifetime, the officer's repeated exposure to such traumatic events creates an environment in which he/she may be vulnerable to lasting psychological harm.

A significant amount of those exposures leaves residual effects on an officer's nervous system. Chronic stress causes cortisol to remain elevated and melatonin to remain suppressed; disrupts the balance between sleep/wakefulness and the ability to monitor/track threats and relax. Officer’s sleep can become fragmented, and their ability to regulate their emotions can also suffer. Officers do not “stand-down” from being prepared to respond to a threat after they have left the police station at the end of their shift and thus are always on high alert. Eventually, this chronic state of being ready to react will take its toll on an officer's physical and mental health. Officer’s experience a higher rate of hypertension, depression, and burn-out due to being constantly state of alert. Therefore, peace becomes a rare luxury for them.

The Cost of Service

The true costs associated with being a police officer are substantial and documented. A police officer typically works until he or she is 55-60 years old. Based on current statistics, a police officer averages just six years after retiring from service. The average life expectancy for a law enforcement officer is 66, which is 12 years less than the overall U.S. population (78). An officer is 30 to 70 times more likely to suffer a fatal heart attack due to constantly being on call at varied hours of the night.

These statistics do not come close to revealing the actual costs of a lifetime of working on alert. It is the silent injuries that have taken more lives than all of those related to line of duty. In total, approximately 184 officers take their own lives each year; this number far exceeds those who lose their lives while performing their duties as law enforcement officers. These statistics demonstrate the reality that many in law enforcement have been reluctant to acknowledge: the biggest risk to an officer's life is often the internal struggles they are experiencing rather than the external threats they may encounter. With each badge there is a person that carries the weig