Police Advocates To Politicians: It’s Time To Stop the ‘Demagoguery’ and Back America’s Men, Women in Blue

Dennis Slocumb, the Legislative Director for the International Union of Police Associations, told Fox News that officers “are going to do what has to be done but I don’t think they are going to initiate contact with people on a corner as long as this environment exists… if they initiate and it becomes a poor situation they have a problem.”

“These young men and women are responding to calls daily to deal with situations that have been festering for years, whether its been family disputes or neighborhood disputes or whatever,” he also said. “They don’t know the background or anything… almost every single time it’s handled properly without any hubbub and in those cases where it goes haywire they are on the front page.”

Privately, cops are continuing to grapple with another struggle: the rate at which they are committing suicide.

“When you are talking about police suicides, it’s at epidemic proportions in America now,” Sutton says.

Data from B.L.U.E. Help, a nonprofit formed to “acknowledge the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers we lost to suicide, assist officers in their search for healing, and to bring awareness to suicide and mental health issues,” shows that 146 cops have taken their own lives so far this year. That number follows 167 in 2018, 169 in 2017 and 142 in 2016.

In this year alone, nine active-duty and two retired officers from the New York City Police Department were reported to have committed suicide – the most recent less than a week ago.

“I don’t think that there is anything more important than dealing with the recent spate of suicides than anything else that is going on in the NYPD in this city,” James O’Neill, the city’s police commissioner, told WFAN radio in an interview earlier this month. “I think the biggest issue that we face is having people come forward when they are experiencing some difficulties and mental health challenges. It’s difficult because what do we do as cops? We protect people and it’s important that people know that it’s a sign of strength if you come forward looking for help.”

O’Neill added: “Just think about what cops do – and we recruit from the human race. All the cumulative trauma that cops are exposed to: you see people that are shot, you see people that are victims of murder, you see people in vehicle accidents, you see victims of robbery, you see some senseless violence. That all adds up. And then you add the personal stresses: marriage, finances, other family issues. This is a really difficult job.”

Story cited here.