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Crazy to hear that there have been a number of police officers within OPD (Oakland Police department) who have committed suicide..There hasn’t been a whole lot of talk about this, but from what I gather it’s because of stress on the job..Here’s what a recent article laid out in Contra Costa Times http://bit.ly/1bVXUc8

Documenting officer suicides is an imperfect science because many departments don’t report them accurately. A 2012 report by the police suicide watchdog group Badge of Life documented 126 officer suicides that year, but Violanti estimated that the true figure was about 17 percent greater. In Oakland, Weston’s suicide was not included as an “officer death” in the department’s monthly staffing report to the City Council. Over the past five years, four Oakland police officers have taken their lives — the same number as those killed in the line of duty.

This leads to a few concerns..

1-How stable are the officers patrolling the streets.. Are the suicides isolated or are they tip of the iceberg? If officers are not in the right mind-set, how safe are we when we come in contact with them? Do they lash out in anger? Are they overly paranoid? How are they triggered?

2-If officers are under stress because of the dangers they face.. One can only imagine how stressed those are who live in ‘high crime areas’ who deal with the threats of dangers without having the powers to carry a gun and arrest those who do wrong..

3-The police suicides can not be seen in isolation and disconnected from the massive amounts of suicides that are taken place within our military.. More suicides have taken place in the military than what we lost in combat? How secure is our security??

4-It’s been pointed out that 150-200 police officers kill themselves each year.. There are so many that a support group has been set up with recommendations for officers to avoid this tragedy. The question we should all be asking is how many officers are actually getting mental health check ups? What’s the standard? how many have met them or not? With all the incidents of police brutality being reported in Oakland, one needs to know as to what was the mental conditions of the officers accused..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKe1FvtaEYI