As part of the STEP Police Officer Suicide Prevention campaign, Hampshire Police Federation Chair Spencer Wragg has today delivered a letter to the National Police Chiefs' Council calling for their support.

A copy of the letter is below…

Dear CC Stephens

I am the Chair of the Hampshire Police Federation and I am leading a campaign highlighting the impact of suicide in policing.

The STEP (Suicide Trauma Education Prevention) campaign is raising awareness of the one of the biggest killers of police officers currently, 242 officers taking their own lives between 2011 and 2022.

Suicide doesn’t recognise rank and I am sure we both know of Chief Officers who have been affected by this. The pressures and stresses of policing whether that is the trauma of frontline officers on the streets, the work loads of middle managers or the pressure and politics of senior ranks, combined with daily life pressure can sometimes become too much.

I am sure you have attended traumatic scenes in the past, delivered difficult messages and experienced vicarious trauma through either people you have dealt with or your own officers working for you.

As it currently stands the forces don’t have easy access to the number of officers who have taken their own life. Those that have considered or attempted it are completely unknown, but they are still out there doing the day job being exposed to trauma, without direct support every day.

Since we started this campaign last week I have already had three officers in my own force come to me and share their experiences of suicides.

One area we will be addressing is that of misconduct, time scales and welfare provisions around that. There is a disproportionate number of suicides where the officers are subject to investigation. The stigma, pressure and isolation of an investigation can sometimes just be too much, regardless of innocence or guilt.

We are also calling for mandatory TRIM support for officers who attend suicide. Just this past week, a Conference heard of one officer who has attended 300 suicides in his career, and pair of officers who – after attending the suicide of a man in his 20s, attended another one just four hours later in their shift.

The campaign has only been running for a week and already has interest and backing from Oscar Kilo, HMICFRS and many Mental health professionals. We have reached out to every Federation branch in England and Wales and the Scottish Police Federation have also been approached. This is a UK wide, policing issue and certainly not connected to my own force in isolation.

I would very much like to arrange an in person meeting with yourself to discuss how the NPCC could both support and benefit from the STEP campaign.

I look forward to hearing from you

Kind Regards,

Spencer

It is important for officers who are struggling to know they are not alone, and that there are people there to help. This includes, for immediacy:

The Thin Blue Line: visit https://www.thinbluelineuk.org.uk/

and Samaritans: call 116 123

There is also the support offered by charities such as Flint House, The Police Treatment Centres, The Ben Fund, Oscar Kilo, PTSD 999, Police Chaplaincy and Police Care.