PIIMIC

Suicide - Police Inflicted Suicide

The media call it "suicide by cop." It's also called "victim-precipitated homicide," and one study called it "Law enforcement-forced/assisted suicide." A disturbed or distraught individual with a lethal or apparently lethal weapon induces law enforcement personnel to kill him. He seems to deliberately create a situation so dangerous that police are forced to shoot. Sometimes the person is wounded. Other times, the shooting is fatal. In Vancouver, fatal cases include Thomas Alcorn in December 1997 who taunted and threatened police with edge weapons (knife and scissors) after smashing a jewellery store display case; and possibly the ambiguous case of Simon Wai in December 1999, who ignored police warnings, burst out of his hotel room, and lunged at armed police with a raised meat cleaver. Both cases were older men with a long history of psychiatric illness and a "revolving door" pattern of treatment difficulties.

Police-inflicted suicide occurs frequently in many cities around the world, but it rarely gets the kind of international attention achieved by Robert Pickett. Unable to get adequate treatment for a diagnosed mental illness, he wrote a suicide note and fired shots at the White House early in February 2001. In a standoff with police, Pickett, 47, was shot in the knee by a secret service agent. Such non-fatal marksmanship on a moving target is seldom possible. When there is no alternative but shooting in self-defense at close range, police are trained to aim at the center of the chest in order to drop the person.

It is difficult to classify such incidents. Some of them are ambiguous. However, a large study in Los Angeles County found about 11 to 13 percent of police shootings fit the pattern of police-initiated suicide. If more ambiguous cases are included, one Canadian police researcher believes the figure could be considerably higher.

Police-inflicted suicide reflects two tragic realities. One tragedy obviously involves the person suffering from the effects of a mental disorder, and possibly also intoxication, with impaired or no judgment at a critical moment. It is usually a person who did not receive adequate or continuing treatment beforehand; or dropped out of treatment; is in a deteriorated life style; lacks adequate supports, and has decompensated (relapse or deterioration of mental state). There may be rational or psychotic impulses toward suicide, or a combination.

The other tragedy is the survivors. This includes the family, and the police who were forced to shoot.

Victim Precipitated Homicide or VPH - This term, favoured in some medical and legal circles, covers "suicide by cop" situations where a suicidal person attacks police with a lethal threat (either real or perceived to be real), provoking the officer to use potentially deadly force as a means of self-defence. The same situation is sometimes called Police Inflicted Suicide, as contrasted to Self Inflicted Suicide. But Sgt. Rick Parent of Delta Police points out there are related situations in a grey area between suicide and homicide, where the person who provokes police into shooting, may be motivated or strongly influenced by intoxication or psychosis; and may not have formed an intention in their normal mental state to commit suicide. All these suicidal and grey-area situations are included in the broad term "Victim Precipitated Homicide."

Post-traumatic problems
Family and friends of any suicide victim tend to blame themselves for somehow contributing or failing to limit the risk. Police feel remorse and sometimes receive public blame. But recent Coroner's inquests into police shootings involving mental disorder in BC have not singled out police for blame: they have found a variety of contributing factors, including gaps in the mental health support system.

Studies have found that 85 percent of police officers who were forced to shoot in suicide cases, experience at least transitory symptoms of emotional trauma. The trauma is stronger in smaller communities where people have more personal involvement. Many police suffer moderate to severe depressive reactions, sometimes several months later. Some experience long-term problems such as Post traumatic stress disorder (see Glossary).

Support teams report that the police most vulnerable to post-traumatic stress are the toughest ones. As one psychiatric nurse said: "Even the hardest and toughest need to admit their problems and deal with the stress." Warnings of increased stress can include alcohol and drug abuse. There is a potential risk of police suicide. Post-trauma stress reactions by emergency response team members make it clear that a fatal shooting of a mentally ill person is not something they want to happen again.

Post-trauma therapies include Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, which should not be delayed; and group discussion of how the members felt about the incident at the time and how they feel about it now. Flashbacks, denial of being bothered by it, and survivor's guilt are typical issues that need to be ventilated. These procedures can also apply to family survivors of a suicide. Andrew Maksymchuk, a veteran Canadian police officer, in his book "COPS - a Matter of Life and Death" points out police often have problems of stress overload from trauma since law enforcement is a highly stressful occupation to begin with. He says "in order to prepare himself emotionally, a police officer must assume that he will at some future date, become involved in a shooting or other violently fatal incident. He should anticipate in his mind, in advance, how he will react... Immediate reactions such as shock, disbelief, guilt, vomiting or crying should be understood as normal." Post-shooting trauma counseling should include members who have been involved in shootings themselves, he recommends, and mandatory attendance of at least one counseling session "will ensure that even those officers wishing to preserve their "macho" image will be exposed to the benefits of the program." See Community support topic for further information.

Non-lethal alternatives in means-of-force available to police
Police forces are now giving more attention to alternative means of force and deploying non-lethal weapons such as the Taser (high-voltage stun gun), bean-bag gun, Arwen gun (rubber or plastic bullets), etc. Pepper spray is an alternative in some situations like crowd control but has limitations and is not recommended to control a highly focused or violent subject in a psychotic state, especially if the person is also intoxicated.

It may be possible for police to gain control by backing off, giving the subject time and space to calm down; using an ERT negotiator and telephone; or if use of force is unavoidable, using a hi-tech Taser (electric stun gun) or Arwen gun (rubber or plastic bullets) which can briefly disable the subject to permit restraint.

Victoria City Police introduced Tasers to BC in 1999 and gave them extensive field tests. As a result, Tasers were legally approved by the BC government for use by police forces throughout BC. Since then, Taser testing was conducted successfully by other BC police forces and by RCMP in western Canada. They are being adopted more widely across Canada by municipal police and RCMP (they have also been tested as an anti-hijacking weapon for airline pilots). A taser can drop the most intoxicated and psychotic person, rendering the person temporarily stunned and unable to resist handcuffing. It works by causing temporary interruption of muscle control through high voltage. The low amperage is unlikely to cause injury. The M-26 Taser comes with a laser sight and can stun at a range of 20 feet as well as touch-stun in close-up confrontations.