Suicide by Cop
This is a continuation of our analysis of “Violent Encounters” a report issued by the FBI in 2007.
Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) began in 1927 by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to track crime reporting and trends throughout the United States. The UCR also enabled disparate law enforcement agencies to standardize reporting criteria for crimes. The UCR and the actions of the IACP are the only reason that we are able to conduct analysis of trends for crime in the US. Without it, definitions for crimes would be as diverse as the police officers who enforce our laws.
Since its inception, the UCR has been amended to keep pace with shifts in the cultural (and criminal) paradigm. In the 1980’s, law enforcement began collecting data on crimes that appeared to be motivated by race, sexual orientation, or other factor of the victim. The crimes were grouped together as hate crimes. Initially the definition of these crimes wasn’t uniform and analysis of these types of crimes was impossible. By 1990, the definition for hate crimes had been standardized and the UCR was expanded to include a category to track them.
The UCR does not currently track suicides, although most local agencies track both suicides and suicide attempts. The American Association of Suicidology publishes national statistics on suicide. The most recent numbers show that 30,662 people committed suicide in 2001. No good numbers exist to show suicide attempts, but the association has developed a formula that estimates that there are 25 attempts for every 1 suicide. This indicates that more than 765,550 people attempted suicide in 2001.
Police officers will undoubtedly encounter suspects displaying suicidal behavior. In 1998, the American College of Emergency Physicians published a report which examined all deputy-involved shootings that occurred in the jurisdiction of Los Angeles County. The report found that 11 percent of all deputy-involved shootings and 13 percent of all deputy-involved justifiable homicides were suicide by cop incidents. The report concluded that suicide by cop represents an actual form of suicide.
In addition to other factors such as drugs, alcohol, and criminal experience, suicidal behavior has a strong correlation to assaults on police officers. In “In the Line of Fire” (1997), 12 of the 42 offenders had attempted suicide prior to their assault on police. In “Violent Encounters” 21 of the 43 offenders had previously contemplated suicide, 16 had attempted suicide, and 6 reported that they intentionally tried to force the arresting officer to kill them during the incident for which they were interviewed. By no means do these numbers represent a wide sweeping conclusion, but they certainly indicate another factor to be considered when studying assaults on police officers.
In order to better understand the phenomenon, researchers for “Violent Encounters” propose a two-tiered investigative approach. The officer involved in the incident represents the first tier. His report on the incident should include analysis on whether the suspect displayed any suicidal behavior. The second tier is a more thorough analysis conducted by an officer experienced in suicide by cop and focuses on factors that could have motivated suicidal behavior. The result of the investigation is to better understand suicide by cop, and to understand it’s true scope in modern law enforcement encounters.
Jedburgh Corp offers a wide range of courses specifically designed to leverage this data, and bring Law Enforcement Training to the next level. Contact us at info@Jedburgh-USA.com to provide feedback on the blog, or discuss your training needs. Also, feel free to post your comments.
