The apparent suicide of a third Chicago cop within a week needs to be a wake-up call for a department that has been long criticized over how it takes care of its officers, a psychologist who treats members of law enforcement told the Sun-Times Thursday.
An officer was found earlier in the day, dead in his Chicago home located in the Chicago Lawn District in the South side, according to police department spokesman Tom Ahern.
Details are still being verified. It was rumored that he took his own life.
An off duty officer was found dead on Tuesday of a purported self inflicted gunshot wound.
She had been on the force for five years and had been working as a tactical officer in the downtown central district, Ahern said.
A 58 year old officer was found dead on Dec. 15 in the 5800 block of North Northwest Highway. Authorities said that this was also a self inflicted gunshot wound.
“If we don’t start talking about this, then people are going to do what just happened in this last week,” said Dr. Carrie Steiner, a psychologist whose practice focuses solely on law enforcement officers and their spouses.
Steiner said she understands the pressures and traumas police face each day because she’s done the job.
Steiner who decided to leave the department to focus on the mental health of officers, worked for the Chicago Police Department for 13 years. But when approached by a colleague to tell her he was considering suicide, decided to depart.
Steiner said she knows officers who have died by suicide.
Now with deaths in the last week, the total number of Chicago police officers who have died by suicide this year has climbed to 8. According to records kept by the Sun-Times.
The city will “say we have all these programs and all these things,” Steiner said, “but if people aren’t using them or — what I experience — that people will try to go to them and not be able to get in for a long period of time … that’s not helping.”
Chicago Police Supt. David Brown released a statement Thursday acknowledging that “we must do more to protect the brave men and women who protect us.”
“The recent tragedies we have faced are immensely devastating for the families and loved ones of those we have lost to suicide, as well as every member of the department,” Brown said.