“Don’t be too proud to reach out for help... all of us would much rather help a friend or colleague in times of need rather than attend their funeral”

Hampshire Police Federation Chair Spencer Wragg on the time he was close to suicide, and the ‘superhero’ mask that can mean officers don’t seek support when they need it

The #STEP (Suicide Trauma Education Prevention) campaign is so important, because we know that a high number of police officers take their own lives. Between 2011 and 2022, there were 242 suicides of current police officers and PCSOs.

We need to understand more about the complex reasons that police officers may contemplate or carry out suicide. It’s a difficult subject but part of the campaign is to highlight the fact that officers are likely to have attended many suicides as part of their job.

The affect this can have on them… and that they can almost learn the methodology of how to do it. We need to better support colleagues in this situation.

We also deal with a number of people in the community with mental health issues or moments of crisis, where they regularly call the police for help. Sometimes they don’t want to kill themselves; they phone out of desperation to get support from the police or medical services. Very often this is the same person calling time and time again.

For me, personally, when I was struggling with my mental health, I didn’t want to be seen in that way. I had the conscious thought of making sure I didn’t call.

Police officers often don’t want to phone the police themselves if they are contemplating suicide – some of that might be to do with officers’ pride and the ‘superhero’ mask they sometimes wear when they’re dealing with trauma.

Again, it’s a difficult subject to talk about but sadly when officers get to the point of contemplating suicide they don’t call or cry for help… they carry out the act.

We need to recognise this and encourage our colleagues to seek help when they need it. They need to look past that professional pride and superhero masking when in times of crisis and reach out to, it doesn’t matter who to. All of us would much rather help a friend or colleague in times of need rather than attend their funeral.

Six years ago, I came very close to taking my own life. I didn’t phone anybody, I didn’t reach out for help, in fact I took steps to make sure no one could intervene. Had I not made that last-second decision to change my mind, then there would have been nobody who could have stopped me taking my life.

I share my own personal experience of near suicide, because if I can make a difference to just one person – and I may never know who that person is or what the difference was – then that’s a success for me.

I’ve spent the majority of my career going to traumatic incidents, and I continue to do operational work now. I don’t want to see any more of my colleagues or friends getting to that point of desperation that I got to. I was fortunate enough to have made the right decision and bought myself from that brink.

Suicide is often still a taboo subject, but we can’t shy away from discussing it. For police officers, it’s something we’re already exposed to. We take care of other people in these situations, but it’s important that we look after ourselves at the same time.

This is not an issue that’s restricted to my force, or this area. It’s across the whole of the UK, it’s across the whole of policing. That’s why one of the goals of this campaign is for police officers to attend a mandatory TRiM (Trauma Risk Management) session after they have been to a suicide-related incident, so that they can get the support they need.

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 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.