Suicide or undetermined? A national assessment of police suicide death classification

Abstract

The validity of police suicide rates is questionable. The objective of this paper is to compare national police suicide rates with "undetermined" death rates and compare across occupations similar in exposure. An additional objective is to compare police suicide and undetermined rates in female and minority officers. Results indicated that male police officer deaths had a 17% increased risk of being misclassified as undetermined (Proportionate Mortality Ratio (PMR) = 117, 95% CI = 110,123, significant at p < 0.01). The risk was higher than both firefighter and military occupations (PMR = 101 (1% risk), 95% CI = 89, 114; PMR = 108 (8% risk), 95% CI = 104,113 respectively). A high risk of misclassification was also seen in female and African American officer deaths (PMR = 198 (98% risk), 95% CI = 151-255, sig. p < 0.01 and PMR = 344 (344% risk), 95% CI = 178-601, sig. p < 0.01 respectively). The significantly higher ratio of police deaths classified as undetermined is interesting, given the high profile of law enforcement in society and the generally thorough investigations of police officer deaths. Also of interest is the suggestion that police misclassification risk is higher for police than other similar occupations. Future research should suggest possible ways to increase the validity of police suicide rates through methods such as post-suicide psychological autopsies.