Police Officers Suicide

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Police Officers and Alcohol Abuse, Substance Abuse, and Suicide
Eric Beaty
Florida Leadership Academy 40

Abstract

Millions of people throughout the world have different issues when it comes to family, work, and even in the social setting. Issues including drug abuse, alcohol abuse, financial problems, and depression have led to physical abuse, mental abuse, and divorce. Police officers are not exclude from these issues either. In addition to those, police officers must deal with a wide variety of issues that the normal person would never think of having to deal with it. Police officers will see people at the worst time in their lives. People who will try to kill them just because of the uniform they wear. People that …show more content…
Police officers deal with chaos on a daily basis. This could range from a family domestic issue to a life or death situation that can happen in a fraction of a second. The stress of their profession on a daily basis can have a lifelong toll on their bodies, health, and mind.
Lindsay (2008) noted that police officers were more at risk for alcohol issues that the general public. This is due to the stresses faced during their tour of duty. These stresses are not only externally but also internally. Internal stressors are usually held in by officers and they feel they don’t have a way to vent. Officers are required to work overtime, have shift rotation, the feeling of not having the support of their administration, feeling they were looked over for a promotion, and not being paid enough for their job. Even though many departments offer help to officers through EAP (Employee Assistance Program), or other such programs, many officers have turned to alcohol as a stress …show more content…
Many police officers have turned to alcohol and controlled substances to decompress from the work related stress. These issues can lead to the police officer being an extremely high liability to their departments. There are several signs that an officer could be having problems dealing with the work related stress. These signs should be looked for and spotted by fellow employees, sworn and non-sworn. Police Departments have EAP’s in place to help those officers that need it, but the officer must realize they have a problem to seek the help offered. If the officer doesn’t seek help or if it’s unnoticed the officer has a problem, it could possibly lead to that officer being arrest for alcohol or drug incidents, terminated from their job, and even worse that officer could possibly commit
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