What’s behind cops’ high suicide rate?

The number of police suicides continues to rise, with at least five having taken place across the country in the past month.

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Johannesburg - The number of police suicides continues to rise, with at least five having taken place across the country in the past month.

In the most recent incident on Monday, a father and former police officer killed his daughter and turned the gun on himself after an argument at his daughter's Boksburg home.

Clinical psychologist Leonard Carr explained on Tuesday what could be leading to the high number of suicides among police officers.

He said it was a culmination of a number of factors and that these things didn't just happen all of a sudden.

“Being a police officer is a macho culture and it's not easy to admit vulnerability,” he said.

“It's important to provide a platform for officers to admit vulnerability and (make it known) that it's okay to ask for help when needed.”

Carr also said the public's expectation that police will completely eradicate crime puts extra pressure on officers.

“Police can't end crime on their own. It's like fighting a war that's going on for years. It leads to burnout because they're working and working and it's going nowhere, which is incredibly draining.”

Carr said stress inoculation training would make a difference because it takes the officers through scenarios they would face on the ground.

According to Carr, the fact that police were seen as the enemy and viewed as corrupt also made life for officers meaningless and degrading.

“It's like being in a pressure cooker - there is no higher value and nothing to contain what they're dealing with. This all leads to officers being on a short fuse all the time, and if they turn to alcohol or drugs, this could be a trigger, especially when they have an active and accessible police weapon.”

Carr said it was also important for colleagues, family and friends of police officers to be trained to recognise early warning signs.

“It doesn't just happen overnight. It comes from an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and resentment because life seems meaningless,” he noted.

On Tuesday, Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Lungelo Dlamini confirmed Monday's shooting, adding that police were still investigating the circumstances surrounding the murder-suicide.

“It happened after 6am yesterday (Monday) and police were informed by the grandson of the male victim. The male victim was 60 years old and the female victim 30,” he said.

Netcare 911 spokeswoman Athlenda Mathe said the two were declared dead on the scene when paramedics arrived.

She said a trauma counsellor had been dispatched to counsel four people who witnessed the shooting, among them three children.

“There was a 19-year-old who is the daughter of the malevictim, and three others who were the children of the female victim.”

In another incident earlier this month, a Bronkhorstspruit police constable killed his girlfriend and a former girlfriend before killing himself following a spat.

Also this month, in Cape Town, a police officer fatally shot his estranged wife before turning the gun on himself.

In an incident in Hammanskraal, a police officer shot his wife and their seven-year-old daughter before killing himself.

Last month, a police officer shot dead his girlfriend at her house in Khayelitsha, close to Cape Town.

ilanit.chernick@inl.co.za

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The Star