France | Police suicide rate climbs, government is flummoxed

Three riot police officers, a police commander, a police academy teacher — all are among eight French police officers who have killed themselves recently. That makes 64 so far this year — and the number just keeps on climbing.

Deaths by suicide for French police now outnumber deaths in the line of duty. The protectors need protecting, say police unions, which are demanding more help to stop the problem.

Those who choose to end their lives are from everywhere in France and of all ages, many with young children. The latest death came Wednesday in the Ardeche region in southeast France. Why they step across what one police union calls the “thin blue line” remains a question that French authorities have so far been unable to answer.

A parliamentary inquiry made public in July lists a multitude of reasons for the stress and despair among French police, including overwork since a series of terrorist attacks that started in January 2015 and the weekly, often extremely violent, anti-government protests since November by the yellow vest movement seeking more economic and social justice. It does not single out any one reason.

“Given the situation today, 2019 could be the worst in the last 30 years,” said Denis Jacob, head of the Alternative Police CFDT union.

A Senate report last year said the French police suicide rate was 36% higher than the rate for France’s general population, but also uncovered no single reason behind the suicides.

“We don’t have an understanding” of why, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner conceded in April as he announced yet another prevention plan, the third minister in a row to do so, underlining authorities’ failure to solve the public health problem.

Significantly, Castaner acknowledged that police suicides must not be considered “external to work,” and seen as only the result of personal problems. And National Police Director Eric Morvan broke a taboo, sending a letter to all officers encouraging them to talk “without fear of being judged” and saying discussing distress “is never a weakness.”

While psychological trauma, including encounters with violence, is a risk factor for suicide, there are 10-15 factors that can feed the “acute crisis” which leads to taking one’s own life, Catherine Pinson, a psychologist in charge of the police support service, told the Senate inquiry.

The “hypervigilance” of police in the face of potential terror attacks is a clear stress factor that keeps police in their “bubble” even at home, Amelie  Puaux, a psychologist with the support service, told the French senators.

And the 2016 deadly attack on a police couple in front of their small child at their home in Magnanville, west of Paris, dramatically impacted police officers fearful for their families, she said. Some moved, changed services or resigned to protect their loved ones.

Sebastian Roche, a research director at the National Center for Scientific research who specializes in comparing police systems, says there are simply no studies to understand the causes of the French suicides or impact studies to evaluate prevention measures, which he calls a “huge weakness” within the Interior Ministry.

He doesn’t believe that PTSD — with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder — is at the root of the problem, noting the dip in police suicides in 2015 when deadly Islamic State attacks in France began in January and culminated in November with the Paris massacres that left 130 people dead.

“All of a sudden, their mission made sense,” he said by telephone. “The population judged them as useful.”

French citizens applauded police as heroes during that stretch in 2015. That image lost its shine over time, then collapsed, as French police matched exceptionally violent yellow vest anti-government protests with harsh containment tactics that maimed some protesters.

At one point, yellow vest protesters, picking up on the suicide wave , even chanted “Kill yourselves! Kill yourselves!” at lines of police.

While suicide among police is a problem in many countries, France’s rate appears exceptionally high. Elaine Ganley, AP