Time To Talk About Officer Suicide

The Chair of South Yorkshire Police Federation has candidly shared his account of dealing with officers who have committed suicide.

It follows a Channel 4 News investigation finding at least 100 police officers and staff have taken their own lives over the past three years.

Federation Chair Steve Kent said it was an “outrageous” statistic.

He said: “In the last seven years, I’ve dealt with five officers who have committed suicide.

“The effect of those losses are still being felt now, it still gets talked about now and the effect on their families is forever.

“It is catastrophically tragic because there could have been things put in place to potentially prevent some of these from happening.”

Steve said too many people had buried their heads in the sand about the issue and thanked Channel 4 for broadcasting it.

He continued: “I think this is the start of the ball rolling. There needs to be accountability for this.

“Anybody taking their own life is tragic, but people doing it as a result of the job or being under investigation – which may or may not go anywhere – is frankly unacceptable.”