HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Wednesday's murder-suicide involving veteran Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Deputy Terry Strawn and his family is the latest in a recent string of suicide or murder-suicide incidents in the Bay area involving law enforcement officers.
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While addressing the media regarding Strawn's actions early Wednesday, Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister said there were no indicators ahead of Strawn's suicide that he might take such action.
Chronister also mentioned his agency's suicide prevention training, set to begin in January. He made clear that the motivation behind the training did not come from either this incident or a previous murder-suicide involving a Hillsborough deputy in September.
"It was even before September. Corporal Jonathan Black who passed away from Pancreatic Cancer faced depression in life,” Chronister said. “His daughter took her own life, and when we had met with him several times before he passed away, he implored us and begged us to look at a suicide awareness prevention program.”
Chronister kept his word to Black. The program started to take shape in the summer.
Other counties responses
Meanwhile in Pasco County, Sheriff's Office Corporal Alan Wilkett told us their agency has not had any incidents in recent years. However, the agency did start a Family Support Network, which addresses PTSD and mental health needs of Pasco deputies and their families.
The idea for that program came two years ago, when Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco noticed a tremendous need to help out other officers.
In Pinellas County, where in October 2017 Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Michael Borland took his own life while off duty, the Sheriff's Office has in place Critical Incident Stress Management, or CISM, which also aims to treat and mitigate PTSD symptoms in deputies.
More likely to die by suicide?
According to the Ruderman Family Foundation and other nonprofit groups, no federal agency keeps an official count of how many law enforcement officers commit suicide each year.
However, a Ruderman Family Foundation study pointed to "police officers or firefighters being more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty."
Similarly, a CDC study found an elevated risk of suicide by first responders, including law enforcement, firefighters, and members of the military.
Still, people in these professions are not among the top 5 professions with high suicide rates.
Construction workers have the highest rate of suicide, according to the study.
Sources:
Florida Sheriff's Association on Law Enforcement Officer suicides:
http://trendmag2.trendoffset.com/publication/?i=548705&pre=1#{%22issue_id%22:548705,%22page%22:8}
Law Enforcement suicides outpacing on-duty deaths:
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/10/03/it-s-time-we-talk-about-police-suicide?ref=collections
Center for Disease Control studies:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6745a1.htm?s_cid=mm6745a1_w#T2_down