I'm not saying, don't get into Law Enforcement,
        I'm saying, don't let Law Enforcement get into YOU!

 

Hello, my name is Leo J Rabago Sr, I am a former police officer. I worked for the Fresno Police Department for several years. I started this page after personally suffering from Anxiety and Depression.

I found that there really isn't a place for police officers to talk about how they are feeling. Studies show most officers deal with their feelings by suppressing or hiding them with perscription and non-perscription drugs, alcohol, gambling, affairs and suicide.

I have seen first hand how many officers deal with the everyday life in law enforcement. I, myself have suffered the consequences of not dealing with my feelings in a positive way. Checkout My Story

It is estimated that some 300 officers "eat their gun," or use some other means, to end their own lives each year. The figure is one that should get people's attention, but for the most part it hasn't. Police executives and instructors dedicated to officer survival issues need to address this issue as critical to an officer's survival. Several factors contribute to officers being in the top rankings of suicide rate charts. Officers tend to see people at their worst. The developing cynicism lends itself to desperate acts. They do not regularly interact with the majority of the population that is good, hard-working, and law-abiding.

Officers also have rotating shifts that tends to also separate them from their family, friends and other areas of socialization. Alcohol and substance abuse become self-medicating methods used in lieu of dreaded mental health assistance. And of course, there is the ever-present availability of that firearm on their belt. Many people can ride out the momentary impulse to kill themselves due to the not having a gun with them most of the time. Not so for law enforcers who, especially when combined with their unique job stressors, have that ever-present instrument of deadly force.

Here are some sobering statistics: police officers and deputy sheriffs by any measure far surpass the National Center for Disease Control general population number of 12 per 100,000 people. Different studies have taken a stab at pinpointing the number. A New York City Police study revealed a rate of 30 per 100,000. Another study, by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, detailed that officers die at their own hands at a rate double of that from the actions of others while in the line of duty.