This story contains discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know may be struggling with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.
Police officers and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty, a troubling trend that researchers say didn’t improve in 2020 despite national suicide rates decreasing.
A new study provided exclusively to USA TODAY from the Ruderman Family Foundation, a private philanthropic organization that advocates for people with disabilities, found that police officers and firefighters continue to be more likely to die by suicide than working in the line of duty, maintaining a similar finding the group concluded in a 2018 study. But in 2020, COVID-19 became the leading cause of death for law enforcement officers.
Researchers and advocates say the discrepancy in suicide rates among the general population and first responders is rooted in unaddressed shame and stigma associated with suicide, a lack of research and resources for first responders dealing with mental health challenges and growing pressure and stress from the pandemic.
“First responders were out there on the front line (during the pandemic), doing their jobs,” Jay Ruderman, president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, said in an interview. “And historically, the stress of being in these jobs and what they experience has led to a higher rate of suicide … but suicide is not really talked about.”
Despite suicide rates for the general population declining by 3 percent, or 1,656 people, from 2019 to 2020, according to CDC data, the rates among first responders showed moderate to no decrease from 2017 to 2020, the Ruderman study found.
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In 2020, 116 police officers died by suicide and 113 died in the line of duty, according to researchers. While the number of suicides dropped from 140 in 2017, study co-author Hanna Shaul Bar Nissim noted that 2020 numbers are likely an undercount due to stigma and shame, lack of reporting and people needing time to come forward.