Police Officers and Firefighters Are More Likely to Die by Suicide than in Line of Duty

A just-released White Paper on Mental Health and Suicide among First Responders commissioned by the Ruderman Family Foundation examines mental illness among police officers and firefighters, who commit suicide at a higher rate, and have PTSD and depression as much as 5 times higher… Continue reading

Webinar on Police Suicide

On Friday September 4th CopsAlive is honored to be able to interview Robert Douglas the Executive Director of the National Police Suicide Foundation in the United States in our next LIVE webinar/teleseminar.

Robert is a retired police agent from the Baltimore City Police Department. He served as Chaplain for Baltimore City from 1988 until 2002. He is currently serving as Chaplain for ATF in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.  During his time in these positions, he became aware of the need for assistance for police and emergency workers as well as the families of suicide victims. Rev. Robert Douglas, with the help of his wife, Carolyn, survivors of police suicide and friends, formed the National P.O.L.I.C.E. Suicide Foundation, Inc. They feel many of these suicides occur because… Continue reading

The Traumas of Law Enforcement – There is Hope!

As editor of CopsAlive.com I just finished attending the 3-day “Traumas of Law Enforcement” seminar put on by the Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.) organization, and despite the depressing nature of what is happening to our profession I left with a sense of hope that there are so many dedicated people out there making things better for those who come after them.  If you are interested in this seminar after reading this blog there are still two more sessions of this valuable program still to be presented this month but you must act fast by visiting the C.O.P.S. website to learn about locations and dates.  There is no registration fee for these programs but registration is MANDATORY!  In our session we had over 110 attendees from around the United States with a variety of sworn and non-sworn personnel including supervisors, chaplains dispatchers and peer support team members. Continue reading