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CONCERNS ABOUT PTSD GROWING AMID RISE IN N.J. POLICE SUICIDES

Record - 5/14/2017

"I don't think anybody

is prepared to see some of the things we see - death, dismemberment, car crashes." Sgt. Bryan Doel

Old Bridge police

The dreams came night after night.

The officer was falling from a rock, frantically scratching at the ground with his fingernails, trying in vain to get a handhold as gravity swept him off a cliff.

The nightmares recurred so often that private counselling was sought by the officer, one of three from the Palisades Interstate Parkway Police who climbed a steep hill 18 years ago to find a 19-year-old who fell from a cliff. The badly injured young man died in their arms, as the officers held onto one another so they didn't suffer the same fate.

Afraid of losing his job, the officer didn't tell his superiors that, in the months following the harrowing episode, a counselor told him he had signs of post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

Surveys conducted in various parts of the country show an average of 15 percent of police officers suffering from PTSD, said John Violante, a researcher at the University of Buffalo who specializes in police suicides. It is a condition that some experts said could be contributing to an alarming statistic in New Jersey: a 67 percent increase in police suicides over the past couple of years.

A total of 35 police suicides were reported in 2015 and 2016, compared to the 21 suicides recorded during the two prior years, according to the state's Policemen's Benevolent Association.

"I don't know why it's happening," said William Parenti, the president of the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of Police, which represents about 400 chiefs across the state, adding that his organization was aware of the increase in suicides. He said that a 2009 state task force report on police suicides had led to increased availability of peer counseling and other changes that made it easier for officers to come forward with problems. But that was nearly a decade ago.

Experts said the fear of losing jobs -- and a culture that encourages cops to pretend to be strong, even when they are suffering -- prevents officers from seeking help for work-related stress disorders, maladies that often are part of the job.

As a result, the Palisades Interstate Parkway officer waited two years, when his mood swings were under control, to tell his superiors that he had been going to counselling. And then, he revealed his problem only as he sought workers compensation payments. He was immediately stripped of his weapon pending a fitness for duty exam, a routine move for officers experiencing emotional issues.

"That was my worst nightmare," the officer, who retired 10 years ago, said of having his gun taken. He asked that his name not be used because he did not want his identity widely known, citing the stigma attached to PTSD.

He said his gun was restored to him in about a week. However, he feared he might have lost his job permanently had he told superiors he needed help at the time of the incident, when he might not have passed a fitness test.

At least some of the recent suicides involved officers suffering from PTSD, said Eugene Stefanelli, a psychologist who works for the state PBA and provides some free counselling to police officers. He said that the number of police suicides more than doubled in 2015 compared to the previous year, from eight to 19.

Stefanelli said there were another 16 last year and five through the first three months of this year. While the numbers include some retirees, he said, they have been mostly active duty officers.

"We know the numbers are high," Parenti, North Plainfield's police chief, said of the recent increase in suicides. "Now, we need to have the experts come in and figure it out."

It is not known how many of the recent police suicides involved military veterans, a group that comprises about 25 percent of some departments and includes a small number of men and women suffering from PTSD after returning from combat. Information recently provided by the state Department of Health shows 59 of 150 police suicides in New Jersey from 2003 through 2014, a little more than 39 percent of the total, involved veterans.

Police work on its own, regardless of prior experiences, can lead to PTSD, mental health experts said. And some law enforcement experts said that stress for officers has been amplified by increased scrutiny stemming from highly-publicized police shootings - starting with the 2014 shooting of an 18-year-old unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo. that led to violent protests. That incident, followed by others, generated a national debate over the way black people across the country are treated by police.

"We're used to people liking us," said Pat Colligan, president of the state PBA. "Now you see people calling us murderers."

Still, it is not possible to pinpoint a single cause for the suicides, and it is not clear whether they are part of a national trend.

In New Jersey, the 2009 task force reported that the rate of police suicides, which involved mostly men, was about 30 percent higher than for all "similarly-aged males."

Nationally this year, there were a total of 11 police suicides in nine states, but none in New Jersey, over 13 days between March 20 and April 1, according to Karen Solomon, who has written books about law enforcement and has been tracking police suicides.

But another group, Badge of Life, hasn't found an increase in police suicides in its periodic national surveys, said the organization's chairman, Ron Clark.

The larger issue, Clark said, is police officers suffering from PTSD without getting help for the condition, a problem that he said falls under the radar because supervisors often don't acknowledge it and officers are "hiding it because they don't want to lose their jobs."

Sgt. Bryan Doel, 47, of the Old Bridge police, said he got help when he found himself waking up in a cold sweat at night after he fatally shot a man who suffered from a mental illness in 2013. But he said that many police officers "don't want to admit that there's something wrong with them."

"I don't think anybody is prepared to see some of the things we see - death, dismemberment, car crashes," Doel said. "It's difficult to say 'I need help.' You don't want to have the stigma that you can't handle it. We, as a profession, need to be more aware that sometimes you just need to talk to somebody."

Inside

It can be a struggle to get help for police officers in distress. 8A.

35

Number of police suicides in New Jersey for 2015-16

21

Number of police suicides in New Jersey for 2013-14

67%

Increase in police suicides over the past couple of years.

Source: state's Policemen's Benevolent Association

"I don't think anybody

is prepared to see some of the things we see - death, dismemberment, car crashes." Sgt. Bryan Doel

Old Bridge police

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