‘Mateship’, an enabling and protective factor associated with Queensland Police

suicide

by

Timothy J White B.Psych (Hons)

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for

the degree of Doctor of Psychology.

School of Psychology James Cook University

June, 2010

i DECLARATION

This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree in any University. To the best of my knowledge and belief, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by any other person, except where due reference is given in the text.

The research presented and reported in this thesis was conducted within the guidelines for research ethics outlined in the National Statement on Ethics Conduct in Research

Involving Human (1999), the Joint NHMRC/AVCC Statement and Guidelines on

Research Practice (1997), the James Cook University Policy on Experimentation Ethics.

Standard Practices and Guidelines (2001), and the James Cook University Statement and

Guidelines on Research Practice (2001). The proposed research methodology received clearance from the James Cook University Experimentation Ethics Review Committee

(approval number 3037).

Signed:

Date:

i Table of contents

Declaration i

Table of Content ii

List of Tables iv

Table of Figures v

List of Acronyms vi

Abstract. viii

Introduction 1

Background 2

Post-Fitzgerald. Going from a code of silence to a code of reporting 5

your mates.

Chapter 1. Police Culture. 8

Chapter 2. Suicide 21

Suicide in Police (International Trends). 21

Suicide in Australia. 24

Suicide in Queensland Police. 26

Chapter 3. Police Culture and Suicide 33

Predicting Suicide. 33

Suicide Ideation. 33

Mental Illness and Suicide. 37

Police PTSD. 42

Drug and Alcohol. 44

ii Age and Suicide Patterns. 49

Length of Service and Suicide. 50

Physical Health. 53

External Support. 54

Internal support services for Police. 57

Access to the Means. 59

Suicide and disciplinary proceedings. 60

The Werther Effect. 65

Police attitudes towards Suicide 68

Suicide interventions and training offered to police 68

Police force attitudes to Officer Suicide research. 70

Chapter 4. Aims and hypothesis 77

Method 80

Participants 81

Materials 82

Procedure 84

Results 87

Discussion 103

Suicide ideation rates amongst police. 104

Disciplinary matters. 106

Whistleblowers. 110

Police mateship. 112

PTSD and presence of mental illness. 116

iii Depression and Anxiety. 120

Relationship issues not a factor. 124

Length of Service and Age. 126

Reflection on conducting research in the QPS. 127

Conclusion 133

References 144

iv List of Tables

Table 1. Queensland Police Service Suicides from 1992. Pg. 33

Table 2. Age, Rank, Length of Service Correlations Pg. 90

Table 3. Multiple Regression model for police suicidal ideations Pg. 91

Table 4. Multiple Regression model for police suicidal ideations Pg 102

with 'relationship stress'.

v Table of Figures

Figure 1. Suicidal Ideation and Disciplinary History With Time Pg. 96

Figure 2. Length of Service and Suicide ideation Pg. 100

Figure 3. Age and Suicide ideation distribution. Pg. 101

vi List of Acronyms

ABS Australian Bureau of Statistics

BDI Beck Depression Inventory

CAS Child Anxiety Scale

CES-D Center for Epidemiological Depression

CIDI Composite International Diagnostic Interview

CJC Criminal Justice Commission

CMC Criminal Misconduct Commission

Const Constable

DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 4th edition Temporarily Revised

ESC Ethical Standards Command

FYC First Year Constable

HADS Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale

HSO Human Services Officer

IACP International Association of Chiefs of Police

INTERPOL International Criminal Police Organization

MT Mindfulness Training

NH&MRC National Health and Medical Research Council

NSW New South Wales

PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

vii PSO Peer Support Officer

QLD Queensland

QPS Queensland Police Service

QPUE Queensland Police Union of Employees

S/Const Senior Constable

SCL-90 Symptom Checklist 90 revised

Sgt Sergeant

S/Sgt Senior Sergeant

SSQ Social Support Questionnaire

WHO World Health Organisation

viii Abstract

This study follows Cantor, Tyman and Slater’s (1995) call for further research into police

suicide amongst Queensland officers. Drawing from existing suicide research literature,

this study examined reported factors, typically associated with suicide ideation, with

particular emphasis placed on the importance of Police ‘mateship’ networks as an

enabling and protective factor for Police Suicide.

In order of priority, Depression, Mateship and Anxiety were found to make the strongest

significant unique contributions to explaining suicide ideation amongst Queensland

Police officers. Despite Cantor et al.’s (1995) assertion, Disciplinary proceedings did not

produce a significant contribution to the equation, as well as Whistleblowers, length of

Service, PTSD, Medical Condition or Relationship problems.

While completed suicide rates were found to be low, the most alarming finding of this

study was the higher rates of suicide attempts compared to the general population, where

one in 10.5 officers report a history of a previous attempt, compared to the general

population rate of 1 in 307.

Suicide ideation was found to decrease when officers reported higher satisfaction with their mateship networks and also when presenting with less mental distress

(Depression/Anxiety). The interrelationship between emotional distress, suicide

ix attempt/ideation and mateship is discussed, which has potential implications for the

police organisation in terms of supporting the use of mateship networks as a resource for monitoring and reducing officer mental distress and suicide ideations.

x Introduction

I entered the Queensland Police as a psychologist in 2003, and in that time have been commended by the Commissioner for outstanding leadership during the 'Lockhart River

Air Crash' in 2005 and received a Special Commendation from the Prime Minister for outstanding leadership during Cyclone Larry in 2006. I was deployed to Palm Island during the police negotiations following the Palm Island Riots, and again with the

Queensland Police Service to the Aurukun Riots the following year. These experiences have afforded me a privileged opportunity to work within a closed culture that seldom lets outsiders in and a rare opportunity to observe and study the Queensland Police culture from the perspective of a psychologist. It is these observations that have motivated me to conduct research within the Queensland Police. I resigned from the QPS on the 23rd of March 2010.

i Background

The Queensland Police Force began as a six ‘man’ Policing Force in 1843 charged with

the law enforcement of the burgeoning town of Brisbane. By 1860, this number had

increased to 67 officers and began its expansion throughout the state. By the early 1980’s

the Queensland Police Service tipped 5000 officers. It was during the 1980’s that the

organisation experienced major upheaval and cultural realignment as a result of the

Fitzgerald enquiry.

The Queensland Fitzgerald enquiry was set up as a result of reports aired in the courier mail on the 11th of May 1987, into police corruption. As a result of the two year enquiry, the Police commissioner and many other senior police were, internally disciplined, charged and removed from their positions. According to Brightwell (1998), The

Fitzgerald Inquiry (1987) found that police officers adhered to an unwritten code that prohibited criticism of colleagues, or prohibited cooperation in investigations of fellow police. The Fitzgerald Inquiry (1987) described the code as 'an integral element of police

culture which had been a critical factor in the deterioration of the Police Force'.

Following the enquiry, Fitzgerald made a number of recommendations, and suggested

that these recommendations be implemented by the QPS in an effort to minimise the

potential for a culture of police corruption. Fitzgerald reported five factors that served to

distort the positive aspects of police culture, which led to Police Corruption. These

factors included:

2  A belief in officers that ‘Loyalty to fellow police officers is paramount’

 That, it is impermissible to criticise fellow police, particularly to outsiders;

 Critical activities of police, including contact with informants, are exempt from

scrutiny;

 Police do not enforce the law against, or carry out surveillance on other police;

and

 Those who breach the code can be punished and ostracised.

Following the recommendations of the Fitzgerald enquiry, the organisation worked

towards addressing the issues identified in the enquiry. This was achieved through the

employment of a new Police Commissioner, the implementation of tighter controls over

police conduct (punitive measures), through the Police Service Administration Act 1990,

specifically section 7.2, which required officers to report breaches of discipline or

misconduct. According to Brightwell (1998), this Act was enacted to counter the 'code of

silence' with the mandatory reporting of suspected breaches of discipline. Further

changes were made through the adoption of contemporary management practices

(Brightwell, 1998), in particular, updating the Code of Conduct tabled in the Human

Resource Management Manual of the QPS. Brightwell (1998) acknowledged however

that, there remained 'a need to retain some more draconian disciplinary measures to extinguishing the practices of particularly resistant individuals who were bent on engaging in unethical practices'.

3 Adding to the 'new code' of reporting unethical behaviour, known as 'dogging' in

Queensland Police parlance, was the implementation of the Whistleblowers Protection

Act 1990, sections 15, 16, and 17 which provides for a police officer to disclose (i) official misconduct; (ii) maladministration and (iii) negligent or improper management affecting public funds. In line with the Whistleblowers Protection Act 1990, the

Queensland Police Service operates the Internal Witness Protection program. This program was aimed at supporting those officers (Whistleblowers) who reported unethical behaviour.

Tasked with the responsibility of managing whistleblowers and internal ethical conduct,

the QPS employs the 'Ethical Standards Command'. This internal governing body

monitors all manner of ethical issues and gives recommendations to management in

regards, to the punitive management of recalcitrant's. Overseeing the practice of the

Ethical Standards Command is the Criminal Misconduct Commission (CMC), formerly

known as the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC). The CMC is tasked as an external

party, to monitor the ethical conduct of the Government agencies.

According to Stapenhurst and Langseth (1997), the havoc that unethical practices wreak

within police services is substantial. Corruption inhibits the performance of public

institutions and the optimal use of resources, both human and financial.

In tabling the cost of unethical practices amongst individual officers, the 'Ethics Training

Subcommittee of the IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) Ad Hoc

4 Committee on Police Image and Ethics (1998), acknowledged that, the negative publicity, humiliation, the subsequent devastation of unemployment, and the impact on family through divorce and suicide are indeed formidable costs.

Post-Fitzgerald. Going from a code of silence to a code of reporting your mates

In acknowledging the personal and financial impact of police disciplinary indiscretions,

Superintendent Ron Vincent, of the Queensland Police Service, sought to conduct a case analyses of an officer sentenced to nine years imprisonment, following the officer's conviction of official Police misconduct. This analysis was conducted some ten years after the Fitzgerald enquiry and was used to provide some glimpse of how police culture presented within the ranks at this time.

Some of Vincent's (1999) observations included that:

* Young officers identify with and model themselves on established

members of the Service with whom they are in daily contact.

* Young officers will conform to the standards of behaviour that they

observe around them and are actively pressured to do so.

According to Vincent (1999), in other words, tolerance of unethical

behaviour was seen as an extension of the 'mateship' norm.

5 * Young officers will tend to imitate behaviour they observe being

rewarded.

In referring to reporting misconduct:

According to the officer "It leaves you in the lurch terribly because the person

you're working with has just gone and done something which would constitute a

criminal offence and you know it and you're there as well. It's really hard

because you know you've got to work with those people the next day. You know

they've got lots of mates in the police station…….. you don't know what to

do…….. All their mates are going to hate you and you've got to work with them as

well….."

* There's a lot of pressure not to rock the boat- the fear of retribution is a

realistic fear.

Therefore entry into the 'mateship' network was seen by this officer as a motivator for behaviour. Keeping quiet in relation to certain indiscretions was seen as more desirable if

one desired of becoming a member of the in-group, (a member of the mateship network).

This, despite the official Code of Conduct in relation to reporting misconduct.

While Vincent (1999) acknowledges the personal toll to the officer (nine years

imprisonment) and the impact of corrupt officers on the Queensland Police Service, little

is known about what impact Fitzgerald driven recommendations have had on Queensland

6 police culture. While Fitzgerald suggested that ‘officer to officer’ loyalty was a factor

that served to distort the positive aspects of police culture, how then has the

implementation of post Fitzgerald laws and policy shaped ‘officer to officer’ loyalty

twenty years after this recommendation? What is the psychological cost of not being in the in-group? Can this lead to suicidal outcomes?

7 Chapter 1. Police culture

According to Woody (2005), society's expectations (of police officers) are often nebulous and contradictory; this situation contributes to a protective subculture, referred to euphemistically as the "police culture". Woody reports that a paucity of empirically based research exists on the topic of police culture. The protective nature of this culture, may account for the reported dearth of research in this area. The closed nature of police culture is one that does not lend itself to open scrutiny from non-police outsiders, let al.one insiders.

Payne, Time and Gainey (2006), assert that Police subculture holds values and attitudes that are distinct from the rest of the population. They noted 'the presence of an imperative

rigid conformity to standards (e.g., loyalty to Police), with evidence of discrimination

against diversity among recruits and internal pressure for conformity by employed Police.

According to Woody (2005), the Officer benefits from knowing that fellow officers all endorse the same standards, however the schism between the police culture and other subcultures can have devastating effects on virtually all types of personal interactions as well as intra personal consonance (e.g., disillusionment with law enforcement career, inability to have healthy relationships, emotional disturbance, and somatic disorders)'.

As a result of this apparent schism, police sub-culture develops an attitude of 'us and

them'. Within the Queensland Police Service sub-culture, tight informal networking

amongst work groups develop. Promoted by a culture of in-group socializing, send-offs,

8 Christmas parties, 'away trips', a culture of 'what happens in the team stays in the team'

develops. This in-group sub-culture was described to me by one officer as operating in a

similar way to an average Australian Barbeque. The officer went on to explain that….

The 'Barbeque set' serves as an unofficial vetting process for the selection of trainee

Detectives. In this process, the existing 'in-group' (in this case Detectives) meet through

social gatherings (not necessarily Barbeques), and discuss potential recruits for

membership into the in-group. These new officers are invited to the 'Barbeque', and through this process, their behavior; attitudes and loyalties are unofficially vetted.

Passing the vetting process is rewarded by further invitations to meet with the 'in-group' and possible appointment as a trainee Detective, resulting in full membership to the in- group.

Sawyer (2004) argues that this process of vetting potential trainees is typical according to

the defined ‘mateship’ rules in Australia. According to Sawyer (2004), one of the

principal returns to mateship is a job. Mates appoint each other for three main

Reasons:

1. A mate can be relied upon to act with fear and with favour; fear of

offending their mates and favour towards their mates.

2. When a mate is appointed, an obligation is created, an obligation that must be

repaid. An appointment of a mate is a contingent future claim on that mate.

3. Mates appoint each other because it minimises their risks. Mates are mates

because they often think the same. With a mate, there are fewer risks.

9 Therefore, the rewards of being in the in-group are many, mateship, loyalty, protection and employment. Being in the in-group comes with a sense of belonging. Those in the in- group socialize together and work together. Problems are discussed together and shared together. If a member of the in-group falls on bad times, becomes depressed or is acting differently, the rest of the group will know and do what they can to help (Stephens &

Long, 1999). Membership within the police in-group can serve as a 'protective' factor for individual problems! According to Stephens and Long (1999), in studying New Zealand

police officers, discussing traumatic events and expressing the associated emotions,

especially with those who have shared the event or similar experience, is a coping

mechanism for processing the effects of trauma and avoiding the development of

disorder.

Some debate exists regarding whether the values held by the 'police culture' are a result of

recruiting processes or become socialized after entry into the Force. According to

Bjerregaard and Lord (2005), the values and characteristics of the police subculture are

more prone to arise from socialization and occupational opportunity than from values

imported into the job.

In Hackett and Violanti (2003), ‘Loyalty and cohesiveness are important expectations of

the police role, and those who violate the unwritten code of police brotherhood may pay

the price of rejection by the group (Brown, 1981). Vincent (1999) found in the

Queensland Police Service, that reporting a fellow officer for 'minor' misconduct was

10 seen by this officer to have the potential to result in in-group rejection. According to

Vincent, it was the fear of group rejection that led to this officer to turn a blind eye to issues of misconduct. According to Ainsworth (1995), 'The police service has come to be

regarded as having a closed occupational subculture…..Hence "outsiders" are treated

with suspicion or even contempt.' Therefore, entry into the in-group occurs through a

strict vetting and grooming process as described in the 'barbeque set'.

According to Neiderhoffer (1967), the close-knit culture prescribes a theme for solidarity

among officers which appears to help them deal with the rejection from the greater

society. Hackett and Violanti (2003) supports this notion, suggesting that the in-group attitude is re-enforced through an, ‘us’ and ‘them’ ideology. Blau (1994) reported that

most police officers deal with both the routine and exceptional stresses by a variety of

situationally adaptive coping and defence mechanisms, such as repression, displacement,

isolation of feelings, humour—often seemingly callous or crass humour—and generally

toughing it out. Officers develop a closed society, an insular "cop culture" centering

around what they refer to as "The Job." For many, "The Job" becomes their life, and

crowds out other activities and relationships. More recently, Abrahamsen and Strype

(2010) reported that; suspiciousness, resulting from the danger element combined with

the visible fact that officers constitute authority in most situations in which they are

involved may lead officers to isolate themselves socially from other people.

Following the recommendations of the Fitzgerald Enquiry (1987) and the implementation

of the Police Services Administration Act (1990), officers were ordered to alert superiors

11 to misconduct and offending behaviours within their in-group, or face disciplinary

outcomes themselves. The process of 'what happens in the group stays in the group' was formally challenged, and officers faced a serious loyalty dilemma. Loyalty to the 'in- group' and risk loss of employment by being discovered overlooking the criminal acts of

a colleague, or loyalty to one's career.

Known unofficially as ‘Dogging’(as discussed earlier) and officially as ‘Whistleblowing’,

informing on colleagues within the in-group, places the officer in a significant bind. It is

an expectation that the act of 'Whistleblowing' places the officer in a considerably

stressful position. Saywer (2004) suggests that the abhorrence of ‘Whistleblowing’ is

entrenched, where Australia has a well-documented anti-dobbing culture which is

contrary to whistleblowing. Crime-stoppers and other anonymous hotlines are

acceptable, but it is not acceptable to dob in your work mates.

In describing the fundamental qualities of the Australian Whistleblower, Sawyer (2004) stated that ‘mateship is a pseudonym for networking and, in Australia, tightly controlled

networks dominate. Mateship, not merit, is often the main prerequisite for employment,

for promotion, for contracting and for acceptability. For a whistleblower, mateship

becomes an anathema. By blowing the whistle, the whistleblower ceases to be a mate.

The whistleblower becomes the outsider and the whistleblower’s world inverts. Secrecy

replaces openness, unfairness replaces fairness, and the network replaces true mateship.

The outsider is never protected in such a world. Most Australians never see the Australia

12 that whistleblowers see. As a consequence, there is a substantial divergence of opinion between non-whistleblowers and whistleblowers as to the state of our nation’. (Pg 1)

The implications for Whistleblowing are immense, Grace and Cohen (1998) found that for 233 whistleblowers, one in ten had attempted suicide and 90% had lost their jobs or were demoted.

In studying Whistleblowing within the Queensland Police, the CJC (2001) presented ten

misconduct scenarios to First Year Recruits. Scenarios ranged across a misconduct continuum with a more serious offence described as drug scene skimming (stealing drugs from a drug scene) to an apparent less serious offence of using the Police Computer system to check vehicle registrations of an attractive person. The CJC findings showed that first year constables were more likely to report the serious offences and less likely to report those deemed to be less serious.

The CJC (2001) report states that, 'the proportions (reporting misconduct) are still quite low for some of the scenarios, especially given that police are under a statutory obligation

to report suspected misconduct by a fellow officer.

Adding to the burden of the officer's decision to report unethical conduct is the realisation

that by reporting these officers, they will be placing the officer under the scrutiny of the

Ethical Standards Command and the internal disciplinary process. Andrews (1984) states

that internal investigations cause considerable distress and if found guilty, these members

13 could face severe consequences, including loss of employment, jail and disgrace. In

reporting fellow officers’ misconduct, the consequences associated with this action, will

no doubt weigh heavily on the reporting officer.

While in-group 'law' denounces any dogging, and the CJC finding indicates a reluctance

to report misconduct amongst officers, 'Whistleblowing' in some contexts may be

accepted. In studying United States Police, Hackett and Violanti (2003) suggest that

misconduct exists on a continuum, where on one end minor in-group indiscretions may

exist, such as drinking on duty, which the group may be inclined to accept as a part of the

in-group behaviour, while on the other end of the continuum, misconduct such as the

possession of Child Pornography or the procurement of sexual favours as an officer, are likely to degrade or bring shame on the police and these offences become Social and moral trespasses. It is under circumstances of breaches of the moral trespass, where an officer's conduct is likely to bring the entire group into disrepute that a fellow officer is prepared to blow the whistle.

Within the Queensland Police Service, Following the Fitzgerald enquiry, the 'Criminal

Misconduct Commission' (CJC) (today know as the CMC), in the 'Integrity in the

Queensland Police Service report' (1997) discussed at some length the issue of whether

the influence of the police 'code of silence' - that is, the reluctance of officers to report

misconduct by other officers, had diminished since Fitzgerald reported on this issue. The conclusion from this report was:

14 There has been a weakening of 'the code', particularly in the upper levels of the

Service, but there's still considerable resistance among rank and file police to

the idea that they should have to report misconduct by fellow officers, especially

for those forms of misbehaviour which are seen as less serious. (Pg. 11)

The Queensland CJC findings support Hackett and Violanti's (2003) assertion that police

officers are likely to report misconduct along a continuum of seriousness, where more serious crimes, crimes that breach the moral trespass, result in less stress associated with reporting, and less in-group consequences.

While investigating internet crimes through 'Operation Argos' in 2004, it is understood

that a Queensland Police detective identified that a fellow Queensland Police officer was

potentially committing an offence. The investigating officer allegedly learnt that a fellow

detective was committing a serious offence, by having accessed and downloaded child

sex images. Based on the CJC findings, and an understanding of the misconduct

continuum, we might expect that the investigating officer in this case presented with low

stress, in relation to the decision to report this officer. Due to the serious nature of the

offence, the investigating officer is less likely to be accused of 'Dogging'.

It is understood that, after reporting the offence, an investigation ensued, resulting in the

offending officer being charged for the possession of computer images depicting indecent

images of minors. According to unofficial reports, within 24 hours of the allegations

being put to the offending officer, the long serving and respected Queensland Police

15 Officer placed a firearm to his head and pulled the trigger. It was suggested that no officers at the time openly mourned his death. According to ‘The Age’ newspaper,

Queensland Police confirmed an officer committed suicide on September 3 2004, during the first phase of Operation Auxin, the name given to the nationwide child pornography crackdown (‘The Age’, 2004)

In a policing culture where group belongingness is paramount, and where the reputation

of the group must be upheld, Durkheim's (1952) research suggests that, where an officer breaches this code, this officer is potentially at a greater risk for what is described as

"altruistic" suicide. Therefore, when an officer is identified as breaching the moral code and the officer realises that their actions will bring the group into disrepute; this officer may opt to commit suicide as an act of protecting the group from further embarrassment.

As a result, breaching the moral code becomes an 'enabling' factor for suicide amongst police officers.

Therefore, not only is an internal disciplinary matter likely to be considered as highly

stressful, as described by Andrews (1984), but this stressor is likely to be further heightened, coupled with the police culture of turning their back on colleagues at these times. Arguably the longer an officer serves, the more entrenched their support networks become. With a greater length of service, they learn to rely more on the support provided by this network, rather than family members and friends outside of the police service.

This police support network becomes a ‘protective factor’ for suicide. When an officer looses the support of this network they also risk losing their usual coping methods and

16 the officer is left to cope on their own. The loss of their support networks following a

breach of the moral code might be considered an ‘enabling factor’ for suicide.

In discussing the suicide and coping methods employed by Queensland Police officers,

Lennings (1995) suggests that when officers become vulnerable for suicide ideation, the

work environment serves to exacerbate their symptoms. According to Loo (2003), Police

work itself is the source of many stressors, due to work overload, shift work, and

exposure to violent and life-threatening situations, among other elements. Loo (2003)

goes on to add that, 'The police organisation is another significant source of stress

because of departmental politics, inadequate resources to do the job, lack of support and

recognition from management, and autocratic leadership styles.' Organisational stress

was described by Liberman et al.. (2002), as more stressful to police officers than

exposure to danger and critical incidents. In suicide research conducted on the New South

Wales Police, it was found that ‘many police officers who had committed suicide felt that

the organisation had failed to support them (Barron, 2008).

Loo's reports that 'the public and community can also be a major source of stress when

police feel that their efforts are not appreciated by the community whom they serve and the public is apathetic about supporting the police. Complaints and assaults against police

officers reinforce the feeling that they stand alone’ (Pg 113). Lennings (1995) asserts

that, with the exception of in-group support, Queensland Police officers generally lack

other ways of dealing with their problems. Therefore, according to Lennings, avoidant

coping becomes an adaptive means of coping for these officers.

17 In line with Lennings’ (1995) assertion that the work environment serves to exacerbate

suicide symptoms, styles of police training might also serve to impact on police coping.

Emotion regulation training is a particularly unique training method adopted by most

police and military forces throughout the world. The premise of Emotion regulation training is that officers learn to desensitise through role plays and graded exposure, to control physiological arousal produced by the sympathetic nervous system that triggers the fight or flight response. According to Thompson (1994), emotion regulation has been defined as “the extrinsic and intrinsic processes responsible for monitoring, evaluating, and modifying emotional reactions, especially their intensive and temporal features, to

accomplish one's goals”. According to Twersky-Glasner (2005) officers isolate their

feelings and perceive expression of emotion as a weakness.

Through training, officers learn to outwardly display calm demeanours and behaviours

and learn to control emotional responding so as to enhance decision making capacities

during high stress situations. Miller (1995) refers to this adaptation as the ‘tough guy’

syndrome, stating that, without this resolve, they couldn’t do their jobs effectively.

According to Burgers (1994), the expression of personal feelings is extremely limited in

police culture. Kirshman (1983) explains this dynamic, by suggesting that the police organisation restricts officers into rigid behaviour patterns that diminish the ability of officers to assume other roles. Harris (1973) refers to this dynamic as "false personalisation"; according to Harris, 'false personalisation', presents as a facet of

18 behaviour that forces officers to act out roles that are contrary to their true identities and

feelings.

According to Hackett and Violanti (2003), the risk associated with 'false personalisation',

is that officers may fail to attend to their true psychological self, thereby making it

difficult for helping professionals to detect officers at risk of suicide. Miller (1995)

reports that, sometimes the stress is just too much, and the very toughness that facilitates smooth functioning in their daily duties becomes an impediment to seeking help for themselves.

Based on a number of research findings, Berking et al.. (2010) report that, consistently,

police officers are likely to use emotion-regulation strategies such as denial, suppression, and overall avoidance of negative emotions for everyday stress, not just as a means of coping with operational stress (Amaranto et al.., 2003; Pogrebin & Poole, 1995).

Unfortunately, according to Berking et al.. (2010), although emotion-regulation strategies initially might lessen the negative emotions, they eventually have the paradoxical effect of leading to the continuation or even escalation of the emotions they are intended to suppress. They argue that emotion-regulation coping can result in an increased rate of police officers developing mental-health problems and dysfunctional methods of short- term emotion regulation.

Coupled with emotion control, according to Violanti (1983), other coping mechanisms

amongst police may also include cynicism, deviance, depersonalization, suspiciousness

19 and alcohol use. However Violanti, Marshall and Hall (1985) suggest that the avoidant

coping method, is evident particularly in how police will opt to draw support from their

peer group and avoid support from external providers, friends and family. By avoiding external support, the peer support network becomes the only support network; therefore

this becomes the only means upon which they use to cope with their occupational stress and potentially mental illness. This system promotes the 'police culture' of the in-group.

Heikkinen, Aro and Lonnqvist (1993) suggest that social support can serve as a protective and also a vulnerability factor. According to Heikkinen et al.. (1993), numerous studies suggest that the social networks of attempters are defective. For example, suicide attempters had fewer close friends and were less likely to receive family support during times of bereavement. According to De Leo, Cerin, Spathonis and Burgis (2005) 21.7% of suicide planners and attempters in an Australian study, indicated troubles in making/maintaining social relationships. On the contrary, good social networks are suggestive of lower rates of suicide.

Therefore, we might expect that officers that breach the moral code will lose their entry

rites into the in-group, and therefore their support networks. These officers therefore

become highly vulnerable to resorting to poor coping strategies such as suicide!

20 Chapter 2. Suicide

Suicide in Police (international trends)

In studying Police suicides across Police forces, Andrews (1984) drew attention to the wide variability in Police suicide rates from one country to another. Lester (1992) explored this variability across Police Forces through a police suicide study conducted through the National Central Bureaus of all the participating nations in INTERPOL. Of the participating Police Forces, each was asked for information on the number of suicides among police officers from 1980 to 1989. During this research, several countries including the United States and the United Kingdom reported that they did not keep records of the suicides in police officers. Many other countries reported incomplete data sets associated with the collection of police suicide rates across policing precincts, including Australia, Canada, Singapore, and Greece.

While many countries either did not report these rates, or collected incomplete data sets, of the countries that did compile such statistics, wide variability was evidenced in this study between the suicide rates.

While not reported in the Lester (1992) study, Heiman (1975) reported suicide rates amongst the London Police as 5.8 per 100,000, While Nelson and Smith (1970) reported suicide rates within the Wyoming police precinct as high as 203.7 per 100,000.

According to Hem, Berg and Ekberg (2001) many of these early studies of police suicide

21 were methodologically flawed, possibly resulting in inconsistent results, which may have

accounted for the wide variability in suicide rates across Police Forces.

Acknowledging the inconsistencies in Police Suicide data, Violanti (1995b) states that

“Considerable difficulty exists in studying police suicide. Researchers often find that

information on an officer’s suicide either is not collected or departments are reluctant to

allow access to such data. Also Police suicides may be misclassified routinely as either

accidents or undetermined deaths” (Pg. 688). Violanti supports this statement by claiming

that “The police represent a highly cohesive subculture whose members tend to ‘take care

of their own’. Whether this differs from other workgroups is not known however

(Violanti, Vena, Marshall & Petralia, 1996).

Following Violanti (1995b), Lester (1992) and Hem et al.’s (2001) studies on the

variability of suicide rates across policing precincts, Loo (2003), attempted to overcome

the methodological flaws experienced by previous studies, by conducting a longitudinal

meta-analytic approach to studying Police suicide. Loo reported that inconsistencies

between Police precincts was often the results of "spikes", due to the reporting of atypical

periods where a number of officers may suicide in a particular year, thereby skewing the

overall results. In this study, Loo supported the validity and appropriateness of the Cantor

et al.. (1995) Police suicide study, due to the longitudinal focus of this study.

In comparing Police Forces across Countries, State, Federal and District municipalities,

Loo reports that the Americas showed significantly higher suicide rates than the

22 Caribbean (d > 1.00), Asian (d > 1.00) and African (d = .39) regions. Additionally, this study reported that there was no difference in mean suicide rates between the Americas

and Europe. It is not reported whether Australia was included in the Asian or European

rates; however this research does elude to the existence of variability in Police suicide

rates across nations.

Loo (2003) states that it would be tempting to suggest that moderator variables such as

cultural differences in attitudes toward firearms and the presence or absence of strong

social supports in these cultures mediate suicide rates between the Americans and

Europe, on the one hand, and the Caribbean, Asian, and African regions on the other

hand.

According to Loo (2003), ' National and cultural differences reflecting differences in

societal values, attitudes, laws, and the like can affect police suicide rates (i.e., act as

moderator variables)’ (Pg 315). Mabe's (2004) reported findings within the South

African Police, who present with suicide rates of 200 per 100,000 may support this

notion, given the higher police murder rates and societal disharmony. Supporting Mabe's

(2004) study, Loo reports a moderate Effect Size demonstrating a higher police suicide

rate for the African police (d = .30).

Loo (2003) noted that the results from the meta-analytic study within the American

population, supports Hem et al. (2001), that suicide rates amongst the American Police do

not differ greatly as compared to the general American male population. In an attempt to reconcile the methodological flaws associated with police suicide rates, Aamodt and

23 Stalnaker (2006) reported that ‘the best estimate of suicide in the law enforcement profession is 18.1 per 100,000. This figure was found to be 52% greater than the general

United States population, however was found to be 26% lower than that of the appropriate comparison group (white males between the ages of 25 and 55). These researchers supported Loo (2003) and Hem et al. (2001), in dispelling the notion that suicide rates are abnormally high amongst police populations.

With regards to the Queensland Police Service, despite attempts to access police suicide

records, no such information was attained and no records were located in relation to

officers who have committed suicide since the Cantor et al (1995) study.

Suicide in Australia

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines 'Suicide' as 'the deliberate taking of

one's life. To be classified as suicide a death must be recognised as due to other than

natural causes and established by a coronial inquiry that death results from a deliberate

act of the deceased with the intention of taking his or her own life' (Australian Bureau of

Statistics, 2006).

The following statistics were compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2007),

based on reported suicides and suicide trends in the year 2005.

According to the ABS:

24 * There were 2,101 registered deaths from suicide in 2005 compared to 2,098 in

the previous year.

* The national suicide rate for males was 16.4 per 100,000 people and 4.3 for

females.

* Males were almost 4 times more likely than females to die by suicide in 2005

(1,657 compared with 444 suicide deaths, respectively).

* The highest number of suicide deaths for males was observed in the age group 30

to 34 years, followed by males aged 40 to 44 years. The highest number of suicide

deaths for females was in the age group 35 to 39 followed by females aged 45 to

49.

Method of suicide:

* Just over half (53%) of male suicide deaths were by hanging, while approximately

one quarter of male suicide deaths were due to poisoning.

* Hanging accounted for 41% and poising 38% of female deaths due to suicide.

* The number of suicide deaths by firearms and explosives has continued to decline

over the past decade from 420 suicide deaths by firearms and explosives in 1994

(representing 19% of suicide deaths in that year) to 147 deaths by this method in

2005 (representing 7% of suicide deaths).

Queensland suicide rates:

25 * The average suicide rate in Queensland recorded for 2005 was 12.8 suicide deaths

per 100,000 (ABS, 2007).

* Over 40% of suicides occurred before the age of 34 and over 20% after the age of

55 years (De Leo & Heller, 2004).

* 79.5% of Queensland suicides were by males, and 20.5% by females (De Leo &

Heller, 2004).

* Hanging and motor vehicle carbon monoxide poisoning accounted for nearly two-

thirds of all suicide deaths in Queensland (De Leo & Heller, 2004).

Suicide in Queensland Police

Police Suicide in Queensland was first examined by Cantor et al. (1995), in large, due to a growing body of research conducted across international policing precincts in response to reported concerns regarding apparent elevated suicide rates within policing populations. In a study focused on suicide rates across Police precincts, Loo (2003), stated that, generally, suicide in a police force is a low probability event with most years marked by no suicides or just one suicide in large forces and the odd extraordinary year marked by several suicides. While Cantor et al. (1995) did not find elevations in the rate of suicides within the Queensland Police (as compared to the general population), cases of suicide with the QPS have consistently occurred since 1871.

26 In reviewing occupational health and safety risks faced by Police officers, Mayhew

(2001) reports that Police suicide directly related to work is rare, stating that access to firearms and marital dissolution are contributing factors. Supporting Mayhew’s statement, Hem et al. (2001) found typical correlations between marital status, anxiety, somatic complaints and depression with suicidal ideation amongst Norwegian Police.

Additionally Hem et al. (2001) found that both female and male police consider personal problems as the most important factor in suicidal ideation, being 82.9% and 52.4% of respondents, respectively.

While Mayhew’s (2001) literature review did not cite the work of Cantor et al. (1995),

the assertion that Police suicide directly related to work is rare, was not found to be the case by Cantor et al.’s (1995) research conducted on the Queensland Police on behalf of the Suicide Foundation of Australia. Cantor et al. noted that a number of precipitating factors were unique to the Queensland Police suicides, when compared to the general populace, of particular note, was an apparent correlation attributing these suicides to the officers’ work.

Janik and Kravitz (1994), in researching the correlation between work and police suicide, reported that officers who were under suspension were 6.7 times more likely to attempt suicide. Adding to this research, the National Police Suicide Foundation, an association of the United States Law enforcement agencies, cited four specific suicide warning signs for police officers, in addition to the traditional warning signs common within the general population (National P.O.L.I.C.E. Suicide Foundation, 1999). These factors include:

27 * Alcohol. Coupled with an always-present firearm, drinking and depression are

major causes of police officer suicides.

* Breakup of a relationship or marriage. Often, the only people outside law

enforcement an officer trusts are his or her family. When a relationship ends, an

officer loses his or her emotional support base.

* Stagnated career.

* An officer under investigation.

In studying suicide threats amongst South African Police, Van Der Merwe (2002) noted that suicide attempts are related to Stress, Marriage, Work, and interpersonal problems.

Mebe's (2004) analyses of factors contributing to Police suicide within the South African

Police, supported Cantor et al.’s (1995) findings that work related problems, the negative image of police within the community and the ready availability of firearms were contributing factors to police suicide, in addition to the traditional suicide factors such as marital problems, alcohol abuse, health and financial mismanagement.

Since Cantor et al.'s (1995) research on suicide within the Queensland Police Service,

The Queensland Police Union report that no comprehensive analysis of suicide within the

Queensland Police Service has occurred. According to the Queensland Police Union, the

Queensland Police Service has not maintained a dedicated file in relation to Police

Suicides since 1992, and no department has the responsibility of maintaining such a

record. Therefore, no comprehensive 'police' record exists between the time period 1992

28 and 2009. Given the massive organisational upheaval from 1990 following the Fitzerald

enquiry (1987) and the fact that Queensland Police Service does not have a current process to monitor and record its suicides, an examination of this topic would appear to

be warranted.

The accuracy in relation to 'officially' reported Police suicides is limited given an

apparent tendency by Police officers and coroners to have some influence on whether

suicide as the cause of death is reported or not. Some suggestions as to why Police officer’s deaths tend not to be reported as suicides are given as 'an attempt to protect the dignity of the officer, protecting the family by writing the death off as an accident, reporting the death as a suicide may have some impact on the family’s capacity to make claims for life insurance' (Pg 689) (Violanti, 1995b).

While the Queensland Police Service were not able to provide records in relation to police suicides, in an effort to capture some picture of the Queensland Police Services suicides since the 1992 study, I have attempted to draw information from Serving Police

Officer's knowledge; 'Queensland Police Union of Employee's', Retired Queensland

Police, and Police suicide media reports. It must be acknowledged that no official records were received from the Queensland Police Service in relation to any officer suicides, despite requests directed to the Queensland Police Services 'Ethical Standards Command' in relation to this research.

29 As a result I have relied on information from long serving officers, with high corporate knowledge over the period 1992 to present. Based on these officers' accounts, I have attempted to trace this information back to the deceased officer, rather than rely on coronial files (see Table 1.). The accuracy of the information appears to become less reliable pre 1999, so I have chosen to focus on the time period between 1999 and 2009, where these cases are well reported, both through corporate knowledge and 'Queensland

Police Union of Employee' files. It must be noted, that I have not included police officers

from the Australian Federal Police, or police from other states that commit suicide in

Queensland.

Queensland Police Suicide 1843 - 1992: Information drawn from Cantor et al.(2005)

* 59 Police suicides occurred during this period

* The average suicide rate for QPS between 1991 - 1992 was 20 per 100,000,

comparable with the state average.

* 76% of officers used the service firearm averaged over the 122 years.

* The average age of death was 36 years.

* There were no female officers until 1931 when two were recruited (0.2 per cent of

the service strength at that time), in 1992 there were 11 females to every 100

males (9.9% of the Service).

* 65.5% of suicides were committed by married officers.

* 49% of suicides were committed by Constables, 23.5 % by senior constables,

22% by Sergeants, and 5.5% by Inspectors and above.

30 * Average length of service prior to suicide was 11.73 years.

* 34.5% were listed as involving domestic problems.

* Service problems were reported in 50% of cases.

* It was possible to determine the temporal relationship of service problems to the

date of suicide in 24 of the 52 cases.

Queensland Police suicides Averaged between 1999 – 2009: (Based on officer reports)

* Only two female officers have been reported to have committed suicide in the

history of QPS. Both officers committed suicide since the Cantor et al. (1995)

study.

* At least 7 Queensland Police suicides have occurred in the period since 1999.

* The average yearly suicide rate within the Queensland police service is assessed

as 0.7 yearly, averaged over the past 10 years.

* Within this period, majority suicides have involved the Service firearm.

* In comparison to the State average of 12.8 in 2005, the Queensland suicide

average, calculates to 7 suicides per 100,000 population.

* Of the 7 confirmed cases in this period, three cases were reported within a limited

time of a serious disciplinary proceeding, or the finalisation of the proceeding.

* At least one case was reported to be associated with relationship difficulties

* Of the seven cases, two cases involved First Year Constables.

* One case involved a female officer.

31 Table 1

Queensland Police Service Suicides from 1992.

Year Name Method Sex Reason Discipline Rank FYC

2009 MI unknown m Discipline Yes S/Sgt

2009 TP hanging m Discipline Yes

2008 BC Service firearm f relationship S/Sgt

2006 RP Service firearm m relationship Const Yes

2004 AH Service firearm m Discipline Yes

2001 HG Service firearm m Mental ill Const Yes

Approx ? Service firearm m unknown

Late90’s MG Cut artery m unknown

1998 LC monoxide m unknown

1997 MM incineration f relationship

32 Chapter 3. Police Culture and Suicide.

Predicting suicide

According to Goldney (1991), Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Flinders

University, 'there have been many clinical studies which have emphasised the importance of various factors in leading to suicide. These factors are traditionally considered to be:

* Suicide ideation;

* Mental ill health (Depression, Anxiety, PTSD);

* Alcohol and other drug dependence;

* Increasing age;

* Physical illness;

* Social isolation;

* Access to the means;

* and increasing publicity about suicide (e.g., Werther effect). (Pg. 115)

Suicide ideation

The term ‘suicide ideation’ is commonly used amongst the suicide literature and amongst

health professionals; however few authors have attempted to operationalise this construct.

According to Gliatto and Rai (1999), Suicidal ideation is a common medical term for

thoughts about suicide, which may be as detailed as a formulated plan, without the

suicidal act itself.

33 At its most basic level, suicide ideation is understood to be the thoughts that an individual

possesses in relation to committing the act of suicide, thoughts about bringing upon one’s

own personal demise, thinking about what it would be like to not be around and what

impact this would have on others, might be typical of suicide ideation. Thoughts may also include thinking about how they might complete the suicidal act, such as thinking about using a firearm, medication or implement for hanging however the absence of such thoughts does not appear to preclude these individuals as being suicide ideators.

The magnitude and intensity upon which a person ideates in relation to suicide is also

rarely explored. The degree to which the person may ruminate about bringing their life to

an end may vary considerably, from brief and intermittent thoughts to continual intrusive

thoughts.

Suicide ideation also appears to have an emotional level, given that suicide ideation is invested with emotive content, particularly where suicide ideation presents following

shame as discussed by Durkeim’s altruistic suicide. O’Connor et al. (2010) reports that

the emotional presentation of suicide ideators is heterogeneous with significant variation

across emotional presentations. The enormity of attempting to profile suicide ideator

groups might be one possible reason why little effort has been made to operationalise

‘suicide ideations’.

34 In this study suicide ideation will be defined as a cognitive and emotive process in

relation to ending one’s life, with varying magnitudes of mental investment (with or

without a plan), without behavioral action. With respect to this definition of ‘suicide

ideation’, a ‘suicide attempt’, therefore is the behavioral act motivated by suicide

ideation, and may include behavioral efforts to acquire the means through which the act

can be completed, fashioning devices to complete the act and actual physical efforts to

complete the act. Within the literature, ‘suicide attempt’, ‘deliberate self-harm’ and

‘nonfatal suicidal behavior’ have been used interchangeably to describe this phenomena

(De Leo, Burgis, Bertolote, Kerkhof, Bille-Brahe, 2006)

According to Violanti et al. (2009), Suicide ideation is an important risk factor for attempted and completed suicide. A plethora of researchers have studied the correlation between suicide ideations and completed suicides, noting a significant relationship ( Lyon et al.. 2000; Nugent & Williams, 2001; Young et al.. 1998). The estimated percentage of persons who hold thoughts about committing suicide and then eventually go on to complete the act of suicide is reported to be up to 60% (Fawcett et al., 1993; Gili-Planas et al., 2001). Pirkis, Burgess and Dunt (2000) found that the rate of suicide ideators who go on to attempt suicide in Australia was more likely to be about 12%. These researchers report that approximately 90% of unplanned suicides and 60% of planned suicides occurred within 12 months from when suicidal thoughts commenced.

Suicide ideation is often measured in terms of ‘life-time’ prevalence. In most studies

‘life-time’ prevalence typically means that the individual has thought about suicide for at

least the past 12 months and attempters are automatically classified as lifetime ideators

35 (Pirkis, Burgess & Dunt, 2000). Prevalence rates for suicide ideation vary from country to country, with the lowest life time rates found in India at 2.6% and the highest rate found at Durban, South Africa at 25.4% (Bertolote et al., 2005). Life time prevalence rates found in New Zealand sat at around 18% (Weissman et al., 1999).

According to Violanti et al. (2009), the prevalence of suicide ideation for both female

(25%) and male (23.1%) police officers in their research sample was somewhat higher than the general United States population estimate of suicide ideation that reportedly sits at 13.5% (Kessler et al., 1999). Suicide ideation within the Kessler et al. (1999) study was

measured using questions such as "Have you ever seriously thought about committing

suicide?", "Have you ever made a plan for committing suicide?", and "Have you ever

attempted suicide?"

Prevalence rates in Australia for ‘life-time’ suicide ideation is reported to occur at a rate

of one for every 34 people (Pirkis, Burgess & Dunt, 2000). In an attempt to calculate

possible suicide ideation rates within the QPS (having an approximate population of

10,000 officers), this would translate to 294 officers presenting with ‘life-time’

prevalence of suicide ideation.

Given the reported correlations between suicidal thoughts and completed suicides, assessing suicidal thoughts in an effort to assess or predict suicidal outcomes would make

sense, particularly within an organizational environment. Monitoring suicidal ideations

would appear particularly relevant within a police environment given police officer’s

36 easy access to the means upon which to complete the act of suicide, namely the service firearm. It could be argued that the step from suicidal ideation to committing suicide

might be easier within a population that has ready access to the means, such as police.

Another measure used to assess suicide risk is a reported history of a previous suicide attempt. Taken from the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (ABS, 1997),

Pirkis, Burgess and Dunt’s (2000) Australian research, indicates that one in 307 people

will attempt suicide in Australia. Translated in terms of expected suicide attempters

within the QPS, this figure would suggest that up to 32 officers are likely to have

reported a previous suicide attempt. The World Health Authority (2009) reports that for

every completed suicide that occurs, there are 10 to 20 or more suicide attempts.

No research has been conducted amongst Australian police populations in terms of

suicide ideation and suicide attempt rates.

Mental illness and Suicide

According to the World Health Organisation (2009), many of those who complete suicide have a mental disorder (65-95%). The WHO report that the risk of suicide is up to 15 times higher among people who have a mental disorder. The WHO report that depression, substance abuse, schizophrenia, and personality disorders are linked to suicide.

37 According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2006a), the 1997 ABS

National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, used internationally recognized diagnostic interview schedules to assess the prevalence of mental disorders through the measurement of symptoms. This survey found that about 6% of the population had experienced depression during the 12 months prior to the survey. Depression was more prevalent among females with a rate of 8.7%, compared to 5.2% among males. Anxiety

related disorders were reported to have a prevalence of 5% in the Australian population; however this result was based on self reports, rather than having met diagnostic criteria.

According to Chen et al. (2009) depressive disorders represent a major proportion of the mental disorders of current worldwide concern as they may result in disability, premature

death and severe suffering of those affected and their families. A number of research

articles support the association of Depression and Anxiety as predictors of suicide in the general population (Bonger, 1991; De Filippo & Overholser, 2000; De Leo et al., 2005;

Kessler et al., 2005; Rudd et al., 1993). A number of epidemiologic research studies have indicated that up to 88% of individuals who attempt suicide meet criteria for a mental illness

(Kessler, 2005; Suominen, Henriksson, Suokas et al.., 1996). These studies looked at all

psychiatric conditions and did not focus directly on Anxiety and Depression.

A population based study focusing on depression/anxiety alone, and suicide ideation in

South Australia found that the population attributable risk of suicidal ideation due to

depression was 46.9% and 22.6% for anxiety (only 5% for women) within this population

(Goldney et al.., 2000). This study adds weight to the reported association between

depression/anxiety and suicide in Australia. Other researchers have looked at this

38 association in specific populations such as the unemployed, institutionalised populations

(Kessler et al., 2005), indigenous (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1995) and migrant

populations (Kim-Goh, 2006) which have all been found to have higher rates of depression and suicide.

The degree to which the workplace potentially contributes to mental ill health,

particularly depression has been the focus of considerable international research (Karasek

& Theorell, 1990; Lambert et al.., 2007; Tsutsumi, et al.., 2001; Tytherleigh, et al., 2007) indicating significant correlations from one work place to another. A recent study by

DeJong, Overholser and Stockmeier (2010) found that suicide attempters and completers were similar on most measures of depressive symptoms and that suicide completers were significantly more likely to have encountered significant job stress.

Violanti et al. (2009) cautions that mental health prevalence rates within police

populations must be interpreted in terms of these being ‘healthy’ populations due to

psychological and medical screening. According to Decker (2006) and Miller (2009),

‘fitness for duty’ evaluations screen officers for a range of personality traits. All QPS

officers are screened for mental illness during pre-employment and during their recruit

phase, potentially ruling out the majority of personality disorders and major psychiatric

conditions. As a result of police screening, a host of researchers have reported the

presence of a ‘police personality’, emphasising conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability (Abrahamsen & Strype, 2010; Evans et al., 1992; Rokeach et al.,

1971; Skolnick, 1994; Twersky-Glasner, 2005; Vastola 1978). Therefore, lower mental

39 health rates within this population, compared to the general population, should by typical.

Li and Sung (1999) report that presentation of depression and anxiety should be atypical within a psychologically tested work population.

Possibly due to the ‘healthy’ population expectations, Violanti et al. (2009), report that very few studies have explored the relationship between depression/anxiety and suicide

in police populations. A recent study of depression and suicide in a police population

found associations amongst depression and exposure to multiple negative life events

(Hartley et al., 2007). The most recent research examining the prevalence of depression

within a police population compared with the general U.S. population indicated higher

rates of depression within the police population (Violanti et al.., 2009). According to

Violanti et al., (2009) results indicated higher rates of depression in officers (12.5% of female and 6.2% of male officers), compared to the general population (7.4% of females and 2.8% of males). Violanti et al. (2009) compared these high rates of depression with suicide ideation, and concluded that an association could be found within a United States police population. Such findings go against the health population expectation!

Within the QPS the association between suicide and mental disorders is not available;

however Cantor et al. (1994) stated that 50% of suicides between 1950 and 1992

involved documented inferred psychological disorders. Such disorders were reported to include depression, alcoholism, nervous disorders, nervous troubles, personality changes

and symptom profiles suggestive of psychiatric disorders.

40 Given the reported association between suicide and depression and from Violanti et al.’s

(2009) recent findings within a United States Police population, an investigation of this correlation within the QPS would appear to be warranted. The prevalence rates of depression and anxiety amongst Queensland Police may give some measure of the degree to which officers might be at risk for suicide contemplation.

In terms of the protective factors for depression related suicide, Schwarzer, Knoll, and

Rieckmann, (2004) reported that the primary social factor hypothesized to mitigate the

negative effects of stress in the work setting is the degree of social support that an

individual receives, and according to Anderson (1991) perceptions of positive support

within the workplace enhances overall mental health. Despite the apparent therapeutic

effect of social support on occupational depression and anxiety, Haslam et al. (2005)

reported that workers were generally reluctant to inform colleagues that they were

diagnosed with a mental disorder through fear of ridicule.

While some evidence supports the therapeutic nature of mateship on depression, the

organisational culture can impact on the use of mateship as a coping option for depressive symptomatology and this might also be the case where an officer seeks support for

suicide ideation.

41 Police PTSD

In addition to ‘access to the means’ another factor that has produced some recent attention in relation to a potential causal factor for suicide is Post Traumatic Stress

Disorder (PTSD) (Panagioti, Gooding & Tarrier, 2009). According to Stuart (2008), police appear to be at greater risk of PTSD reactions (resulting from higher exposure to trauma) and job burnout (resulting from the way in which police work is organized), both of which increase the risk of psychosocial problems and suicide. According to Violanti,

(2004), given frequent assignments of responding to critical situations, police officers are a high-risk population for exposure to traumatic stress and that this increased exposure leads to increased risk for PTSD. Martin et al. (2009) stated that ‘the development of

PTSD symptoms in police personnel is associated with cumulative exposure to duty- related critical incidents and occupational stressors’ (Pg 452).

The DSM-IV-TR report that the prevalence rate of PTSD in the general population sits at

around 1% to 14%, however report higher rates amongst particular populations (e.g.,

combat veterans, victims of volcanic eruptions or criminal violence) yield prevalence

rates ranging from 3% to 58% in these sub-populations. Mann and Neece (1990) estimated that twelve to thirty five percent of United States police officers suffer PTSD and was ranked the fifth most common referral problem presenting to police psychologists. In Martin et al.’s (2009) Canadian police study, 8% of the sample were reported to have lifetime full PTSD and 7% had lifetime partial PTSD, following their

42 most stressful duty-related traumatic event. Similar prevalence rates have been found in

other police departments (Carlier et al., 1997; Robinson et al., 1997)

Following Stuart’s (2008) suggestion that PTSD might yield positive correlations with

police suicide, Belik et al. (2009) studied Canadian military personnel to determine if

exposure to traumatic events led to an increased risk of suicide attempts. These

researchers report that the more an individual was exposed to traumatic events, the higher

the risk for suicide attempts. These researchers reported that the findings from their

research indicated a dose-response effect to trauma.

Krysinska and Lester (2010) conducted a meta-analytic study of 50 suicide and PTSD

articles, and although no significant findings were reported in relation to PTSD and completed suicides, significant correlations were found between PTSD, suicidal ideations and prior attempted suicides.

Stephens and Long (1999), having studied the New Zealand police also noted that PTSD symptoms were moderated by the officer’s support networks. In essence, the presence of positive mateship networks, served to mediate PTSD symptomatology. Martin et al.’s

(2009) study in relation to PTSD in the Canadian police force also found that social support from colleagues during a traumatic event served as a protective factor against

PTSD, again alluding to the protective potential of mateship networks within police

cultures.

43 Again the importance of police mateship networks and the effect that these networks can

potentially have on the health of officers is acknowledged, adding weight to the need to

explore the relationship of police mateship networks and their implications for police

health and suicide.

Based on the literature, if PTSD is considered a potential risk factor for suicide, then an

examination of the rate of PTSD amongst the Queensland police is warranted. No

published research exists that can provide any indication of the rates of PTSD amongst

the Queensland Police population, and no such information was obtained or made

available from the Queensland Police Service. To what degree PTSD might influence or have an impact on suicidal thought and suicide attempts amongst the Queensland police is not known and should be examined.

Drug and Alcohol

The link between alcohol and suicide has been well reported (Rogers, 1992). In a meta- analytic study, Harris and Barraclough (1997) found that alcohol dependent patients had a standardized mortality ratio for suicide 14 times higher than the general population. In an early study, Roy and Linnoila (1986) reported that, up to 40% of alcoholics may attempt suicide at some time. As discussed, Cantor et al. (1995) indicated a potential link with QPS officers, alcohol and suicide. More recently, Kirschman (2006) postulated that a relationship between alcohol and suicide existed amongst United States police,

44 reporting that 15% of officers who had completed suicide had histories of excessive

consumption.

Early research into the prevalence of alcohol use amongst Australian police has been

quite alarming, with Richmond et al. (1998) indicating that nearly half (48%) of the

officers in the New South Wales police force consumed alcohol excessively including

continuous hazardous or harmful consumption and binge drinking. Davey, Obst and

Sheehan (2001), reported that 30% of Australian police (within a state police department)

were found to be at risk of harm from excessive alcohol consumption. In 1999, Richmond

et al. conducted a further study within the NSW police and found that, amongst officers

‘alcohol use was seen as a way of obtaining information or group membership, self- medication and socializing’ (Pg 1509). Alcohol was seen to be a part of the police culture and assisted with entry into police in-groups. Davey et al. (2001) reported that Australian police officers rated social factors such as celebration, and socialising with peers as the most important factors that contributed to alcohol consumption. Supporting the notion of an alcohol related police culture, Obst, Davey, and Sheehan (2001) found that Australian police recruits increased their drinking consumption after joining the police.

After the Fitzgerald enquiry, the Police Service Administration Act (1990) implemented policy to manage alcohol and drug use amongst officers. Clear guidelines in relation to

alcohol and drug use are offered to police through the Code of Conduct section 17.1

(2006), and officers are provided education in relation to the Code of Conduct during

initial employment training and by regular education and information dissemination

through the Queensland Police Alcohol and Drug Awareness Unit. According to Deputy

45 Commissioner Ian Stewart (2009), the Service provides a number of functions and

programs including education, support and treatment for members on the responsible use of

alcohol and for those who require assistance for alcohol misuse.

The following current alcohol related directions are tabled in the Code of Conduct.

Illicit drug use by QPS members is not acceptable.

Members are to ensure that the consumption of alcohol or other licit drugs does

not adversely affect the performance of their official duties. Licit drugs include

prescription and over the counter medications.

Members of the Service are not to:

(i) consume alcohol while on duty or during meal breaks except where related to

the member's official duties and subject to a superior member's approval and

conditions; or

(ii) consume alcohol or other licit drugs when a requirement to go on duty is

reasonably foreseeable and imminent where such consumption will:

(a) adversely affect ability to conduct official duties;

(b) result in unsatisfactory work performance; or

(c) affect the safety of others.

Section 7 of the Queensland Police Service Administration Regulation (1990) allows for

the monitoring of alcohol use within the workplace through random and targeted alcohol testing. Officers are aware that it is a requirement of their employment to submit to alcohol and drug tests, and that positive results will result in punitive outcomes. The 46 Administration Regulation also provides avenues for officers to seek Alcohol and Drug

treatment where they believe that they might have an alcohol or drug problem. Through

the Act, officers are encouraged to seek treatment, rather than be detected in the

workplace with alcohol or drug readings. Based on reported data provided by the QPS,

the Sunday Mail (27 Feb, 2010) stated that approximately 10% of all serving police

officers undergo annual random alcohol testing (Western, 2010).

As an adjunct to the QPS, Code of Conduct, the QPS has developed a new policy on the

discipline process and standards of sanctions against police officers convicted of offences of driving under the influence of liquor. The policy, ‘Indicative sanctions for disciplinary matters involving police officers prosecuted for drink driving offences’ (Stewart, 2009), commenced on 1 July 2009.

No research article was identified that can give any measure of how wide illicit drug use is in any police force, suggesting that illicit drug use within policing environments is extremely low. In my seven years of service with the QPS, I am not aware of a single case of schedule 1 (Queensland Drugs Misuse Act, 1987) illicit drug use or investigation against an officer for a schedule 1 drug. Therefore illicit drug use is likely to be a poor predictor for suicide in the QPS. No conclusive report exists among the QPS police

suicides, that illicit drug use was a contributing factor in these suicides. Based on the

Sunday Mail report (Western, 2010) from data provided by the QPS, 128 drug tests have

been conducted on officers since 2006 and all returned negative results.

47 No recent academic research articles could be found in relation to alcohol use amongst

the Queensland Police Service since the Davey, Obst and Sheehan 2001 articles.

Responding to the dearth of alcohol research within police populations, the most recent

research on the topic (Lindsay, 2008), reported that no difference in alcohol use was

found between Mississippi officers and the general public.

The implementation of the Code of Conduct however is surely to have had an impact on the reported police ‘alcohol’ culture, where after the policies, officers could not drink at

work, at work functions, or when on duty. Many of the operational police officers

working in Queensland have an ‘on-call’ responsibility, where, even though they are not

at their place of work, are required to respond to police matters. The Code of Conduct

therefore will have an expected impact on these officers, even in their ‘own time’. Other

recent factors impacting on the reported police ‘alcohol’ culture since the 1990’s is that

many of the indigenous communities in North Queensland impose strict no alcohol bans

within the communities, and officers working in these communities are ultimately placed under enforced abstinence.

Due to the code of conduct, new disciplinary sanctions and pressures placed on alcohol

consumption amongst QPS officers, it is an expectation that officers who do have alcohol

and drug problems will be detected and either disciplined or treated through the Alcohol

and Drug Unit. On this basis, this research does not include Drug and Alcohol as a factor for suicide ideation within the QPS, despite early research connecting these two factors.

48 Age and suicide patterns

Age and suicide has typically been measured through patterned suicide clusters (Alte da

Veiga & Braz Saraiva, 2003; Fuse, 1980; Girard, 1993; Lester, 1982). These cluster

patterns have been used to assist researchers in understanding ‘at-risk’ age groups within

various populations.

Alte da Veiga and Braz Saraiva (2003) proposed that four different suicide cluster patterns occur across different European countries. Upward sloping patterns were reported where lowest rates were found in young adults and highest rates in old age.

These researchers reported that the ‘upward’ sloping pattern was typical of most Western,

Central, and Southern countries. The ‘convex’ pattern, where the highest rates were found in middle age (35-44 to 55-64 age groups) was typical of Eastern Europe countries.

The ‘downward’ sloping pattern, where the younger age groups showed the highest rates, was found in non-continental countries like the UK, Ireland and Iceland. The last cluster pattern was reported as the ‘uniform’ pattern, which typically showed little suicide rate change across ages.

According to De Leo et al. (2005), in an Australian study, all levels of suicidal ideation

and behavior prevailed among subjects between the ages of 25 and 44 years, but declined

in successively older age groups, suggestive of a convex pattern as described by Alte da

Veiga and Braz Saraiva (2003). Similar Australian findings have been reported (Jorm et

al.., 1995; Goldney et al.., 2000).

49 Cantor et al. (1995) found that the average age for suicide in the QPS prior to 1992 was

36 years. Making determinations based on Cantor et al.’s (1995) reported average age for

suicide is limited, given that the pattern of suicides across the age groups is not known. It

is not known whether more suicides occur at latter ages or younger ages. With an

awareness of how suicides cluster by age within the QPS, Police Psychologists might be

better able to predict at what age officers might become more vulnerable to suicide.

Length of service and suicide

First Year Constables’ (FYC’s) enter the Police organisation with little to no connections

into the Police ‘mateship’ network. Inclusion is typically measured through length of service and achievements. Based on this lack of inclusion, in attempting to cope with the potential horrors of the job, FYC's may attempt to explain their experience with these horrors to a close loved one or friend. It is often difficult for FYCs to explain such traumas to persons outside of the job that have little understanding of the police world.

Violanti (1995a) describes the development of police culture as a response to the officer’s frustrations with dealing with public attitudes towards police. Violanti states that “A sense of societal isolation often ensues, compelling officers to group together in a defensive stance, rather than gain support from outsiders, as a result of a perception that the public (friends and family) is not likely to support them,

50 FYC’s avenues for seeking support are potentially less than that of an officer with more

lengthy service, as they lack the connections into the 'in-group', as the vetting process

may take many months or years to achieve. The importance of ‘mateship’ or ‘social

support’ in police officers is evidenced by Patterson (1992), who found that seeking

social support buffered the relationship between work events and distress.

Cantor et al.’s (1995) findings in relation to Service History gives an average length of

service prior to suicide at 11.73 years. I would argue that this does not provide an

accurate picture of how the suicides might be divided, particularly if officers with lengthy

service histories have higher suicide rates, in company with officers with small service

histories. In this way, officers in the median range of service history are therefore

potentially least likely to commit suicide. In examining the police suicides in Queensland

over the past ten years, this relationship appears to exist, with two first year constables

and at least four long serving officers committing suicide. It seems that officers with a

few years service are least likely to suicide.

Such a relationship might exist when you look at ‘mateship’ as a factor involved in predicting suicide amongst police. In the case of First Year Constables (FYC) they are learning to fit into the organisation, and are slowly developing social networks within the organisation. When these officers present with mental illness, have domestic problems or become affected by alcohol dependence, they are less likely to be identified and supported by fellow officers given that they are less entrenched in this social network. As

51 a result these officers may potentially be at a higher risk of suicide due to a lack of

‘mateship’ networks.

On the other end of the service history continuum, Officers with lengthy service (20 years or more), who are intrinsically entrenched within the service culture and social networks; stand to suffer greatly in the event that they lose these relied upon networks- networks that they have learnt to rely on in times of hardship and have become essential within their coping repertoire.

In understanding the police culture, it is on rare occasions that an officer with a lengthy

service history will lose such enmeshed support. It is accepted as described above, that

when facing certain disciplinary proceedings, fellow officers will relinquish this support and sever any networks to this officer. Therefore in the officer’s time of need, the officer is left isolated, and therefore at greater risk of suicide. They lose their ‘mateship’ entitlements. Additionally, in order to spare the service and their colleagues the embarrassment of a protracted and public court case, these officers may commit suicide, in the manner described by Durkheim (1966)(altruistic suicide).

Therefore, the relationship between length of service and perceived peer support is

potentially a significant factor associated with police suicide. As a result, it is important

that this relationship is examined and assessed in terms of its impact on Queensland

Police officers. In the event that such a correlation is identified, police psychologists

52 might be better positioned to provide support services to officers that fit within these potential high risk areas.

Physical health

Chronic illness has been associated with higher rates of suicide amongst people with physical illness (Ruzicka, Choi & Sadkowsky, 2005), in patients with poor pain management (Fishbain, 1996; Venkoba, 1990) and older populations with poor physical health (Fiske, O’Riley & Widoe, 2008).

Police recruits are required to maintain a standard level of physical health. While these

standards are not enforced following recruit training (in most areas), officers must be able

to complete the physically demanding tasks required of day to day general duties policing. Police with permanent physical disabilities where they are unable to conduct the duties of a police officer are typically medically retired, under the work cover medical retirement scheme. All officers are required to retire at age 60. Therefore it is expected that physical ill health would be a poor predictor for suicide in a policing population, given the physical nature of the job.

The complicating factor with physical ill health amongst police is the fact that many

physically ill police officers are removed from their place of work to conduct

rehabilitation in other less physically demanding areas, such as counter duties and

administrative tasks. By removing these officers from their work place, these officers are

53 potentially removed from their colleagues and support networks. Where an officer is

placed on long-term sick leave, these officers are typically barred from entering the workplace, due to Work place health and safety laws. These officers are therefore not permitted access with work colleagues, and must rely on their colleagues to make contact with them outside of normal working hours at a location external from the workplace.

Of the QPS suicides in the past ten years all reportedly presented in good physical health

prior to suicide.

External support

While I have discussed that a loss of social support may increase the likelihood for suicidal ideation within a police population, can the same be expected when the officer loses other social supports such as a relationship breakdown with a wife, husband or partner? Relationships with wives, husbands and partners arguably share similar qualities as those relationships shared between police colleagues. In general, both types of relationships develop over time, both require emotional investment, and the loss of both, are likely to evoke emotional responses of grief/loss and acute stress.

According to several researchers, marriage is identified as a protective factor against suicide and suicide ideation (Bucca, Ceppi, Peloso, Arcellaschi, & Fele, 1994; Casey et al.,

2006; Hulten &Wasserman, 1992; Kreitman, 1988; Lester, 1987; Qin et al., 2003; Smith,

Mercy, & Conn, 1988). Having conducted a post-mortem analysis of 21,169 completed

54 suicides compared to a control population of 423,128 live comparisons, Qin, Agerbo and

Mortensen (2003) found that being single was significantly associated with higher suicide risk in male subjects. Casey et al. (2006) report that they were the first study to examine the variable associated with serious suicidal ideation in a multinational setting. These researchers reported significant associations across nations with marital status and suicidal ideation, where married subjects reported less suicide ideations.

This research may indicate the protective value of stable positive relationships, however

negative life events caused by break-down in relationships and relationship loss due to

divorce and separation has been found to have a time relationship effect with suicide.

In a recent Australian study, Kolves, Ide and De Leo (2010) found that marital separation

was a significant factor associated with suicidal ideation amongst Australian men,

particularly when separated men had lower education, separation-related shame and

stress from legal negotiations. According to Heikkinen, Aro and Lonngvist (1992)

separation was seen as the most critical event in 68% of suicides investigated in their

research with reported separation during the last 3 months. In an Australian study, Cantor

and Slater (1995) explored the relationship between the acute disruption of attachments

by separation with suicide rate compared with the longer phase of divorce.

These researches reported that, loss of marriage partner for males by separation carried

twice the suicide mortality compared with loss by death (widowhood) and that the

greatest risk for suicide for males associated with marital breakdown appeared to lie in the separation phase.

55 Based on these research findings found within the general population, we might expect

that police officers that report having relationship difficulties with their significant other

(Partner) will present with higher suicidal ideations.

Based on Herm, Berg and Ekeberg’s (2001) study of international police suicide, these

researchers call for the need to explore the relationship between marital status and its

particular impact on police suicide. Little research has been conducted on the impact of

marital/relationship breakdown amongst police populations. The most recent study in

relation to marital discord and police suicide (Violanti et al., 2008) found that marital

status modified the association between depression score and suicide ideation in women

officers, with a notably stronger association in unmarried women officers than in married

women officers. This research did not demonstrate a significant marriage/suicide

relationship between male officers however. The disproportionate balance between the

ratio of male officers compared to female officers may also account for this difference

within a police population. As of April 2009, there were 2524 female police officers

compared to 7497 male police officers serving with the QPS. Only one in four police

officers in the QPS are women.

While it is generally accepted that marital status and marital discord are contributing factors for suicide ideation, the impact that marital discord has on police officers within the QPS is not known. Are police officers that report marital difficulties more likely to present with higher rates of suicide ideation? It has been seven years since Loo (2003), encouraged researchers to explore the relationship of moderator variables for Police

56 Suicide, particularly the presence and absence of internal and external social support networks, therefore it is felt that this factor needs to be examined as a potential contributing factor for police suicide, particularly within the Queensland Police Service.

Internal support services for Police

According to Violanti and Paton (1999), 'many traumatised and stressed policemen have

been unwilling to make use of the Crisis counselling line which offers 24-hour

counselling. This has been attributed to the stigma attached to Social Workers,

Psychologists, and counselling and the shame of seeking help.' An Australian study

conducted on the New South Wales Police reported that, ‘seeking professional assistance

for life-style issues was viewed as a sign of weakness’ (Richmond et al., 1999). These

findings are over ten years old, and much in the way of societal education has developed in relation to accessing support services for mental health, since this time. Also, general practitioners are more likely to screen for mental illness, and medicare rebates are now available to those who seek private psychological services.

Following the Queensland police Fitzgerald Enquiry, the Queensland Police Service

acknowledged the unique stressors encountered by its officers. In response to this

acknowledgement, the Queensland Police Service sought to employ psychologists and

Social workers within the Service to provide a source of professional psychological and welfare support for all officers experiencing stress and in need of psychological support.

These registered professionals became known within the Queensland Police as 'Human

57 Services Officers' (HSO's). These health professionals became employed post 1991,

following much of the findings reported by Cantor et al. (1995).

In addition to this support these professionals also established an internal Peer Support

Network, aimed at harnessing the police culture of 'mateship' and use this network to

identify those officers in most need of psychological support. 'Peer Support Officers'

(PSO's) become members of the PSO network after being selected by their peers,

completing a peer support training program and undergoing regular supervision

throughout the year. In this training, considerable attention is given to identifying

potential suicidal patterns in serving officers. Based on their New Zealand Police studies,

Stephens and Long (1999) report that peer support offers the best opportunities for the

discussion of traumatic experiences that are helpful in the recovery from trauma.

In theory, the 'Peer Support Officer' establishes that an officer may be displaying signs of

stress, and in cases where the PSO exhausts their ability to support the officer, or is

unsure about what the underlying issues might be, the PSO refers the officer to the HSO, or alerts the HSO of the need for this officer to be followed-up.

Unique to the role of the HSO, is the fact that the HSO's clients are for the best part

armed with an array of deadly weapons, including a firearm, capsicum spray, baton,

handcuffs and stun guns. Other officers may be armed with machine guns, shotguns, stun-grenades, and high explosives. These officers are also trained in person restraints and self defence techniques.

58 As a result, HSO's are cognisant of the potential risks associated with a client presenting with suicidal ideation, particularly given their immediate access to the means for self harm. A greater understanding of the factors that contribute to increasing the potential for suicidal ideation (and therefore completed suicide) amongst this client group would greatly assist HSO's and PSO's in their capacity to better detect potentially suicidal clients, and develop strategies to identify at-risk factors associated with suicidal intent!

Therefore research into the factors that potentially serve to contribute to police officer suicide and suicide ideation is highly important, particularly if it assists helping professionals in their efforts to identify and treat those officers at risk.

Access to the means

According to Klieve, Sveticic and De Leo (2009), in studying Australian licensed firearm holders, ‘familiarity with and access to firearms is central not only to the choice of this method, but is also linked to a greater likelihood of committing suicide by any method.

Given QPS officers’ licensed access to a firearm and knowledge of how to use it, it could be expected that they will present with higher rates of suicide and be more likely to use their service firearm to commit suicide.

Hackett and Violanti (2003) reports that up to 95% of United States Police officers used their service firearm in completing the act of suicide. In the Canadian study, the method of suicide typically involved the use of a firearm (88.3%), which was usually the service firearm. In the Cantor et al. (1995) study, 76% of Queensland officers opted to suicide

59 using a firearm; and again, in most cases the service firearm was used. The only exception to this finding was found with the London police, who don’t carry firearms.

London police suicide did not appear to differ to that of the general London population

(Friedman, 1968).

Cantor et al.'s (2005) findings in relation to the use of the service firearm as the

predominant means for suicide within the Queensland Police, appears to be consistent

between the ten year period between 1999 and 2008. During this period five out of the

seven suicides reported involved the use of the service firearm.

Suicide and Disciplinary Proceedings

Cantor et al. (1995) found a significant relationship between suicide completions and officers that were subject to disciplinary proceedings. Of the officers that committed suicide, Cantor et al. reported that 50% were subject to disciplinary proceedings at the time of their deaths. In studying Canadian Mounted Police (Andrews, 1984), noted that just over a quarter of police suicides were committed following the officer being subject to internal disciplinary investigations. Of these Canadian investigations, offences such as impaired driving, corruption and sexual assault were reported. Within the Cantor et al. study, no investigation was conducted into what type of disciplinary proceedings

appeared to precede these completed suicides. Cantor et al. reported that of the cases

where this relationship was reported, 62.5% committed suicide within 7 days of finding

60 out about these proceedings, with the majority having completed suicide within 3 to 12

months following proceedings.

In the reported suicide cases identified since 1999, two of the seven cases presented while under investigation for serious disciplinary preceding (possession of child pornographic material, official corruption) and another while under investigation for a less serious offence. It is noted that in the seven cases, two were First Year Constables (FYC). FYCs

are under close supervision and have had little autonomous access to the public thereby

limiting the possibility for them to attract serious complaints or be identified in offending

behaviour.

The apparent association between police culture and disciplinary proceedings has been discussed earlier. It is expected that the nature of policing culture, to banish fellow officers during serious disciplinary proceedings, is a potential enabling factor to police suicide.

According to the 'Integrity in the Queensland Police Service: QPS reform update’ (2001), with regards to breaches of discipline that were investigated internally, around 75% of matters concerned 'officer behaviour' (which includes rudeness) or 'duty failure'. From this it could be deduced that 25% of more serious cases are investigated by the CMC.

The results from the 'Integrity update' indicate that in the year 2000, breach of discipline complaints presented within the QPS at a rate of 100 per 1000. In a Queensland Police

61 population of over 9000 officers, this rate suggests that at any one time around 900

Queensland Police are likely to be subject to some form of disciplinary investigation.

Given Cantor et al.'s (1995) finding that the presence of a disciplinary complaint

appeared to correlate highly with completed suicides, potentially, if a disciplinary

complaint is a predictor for suicide with the QPS, currently up to 900 officers are potentially at risk of suicide at this time. Therefore, the value of researching the correlation between disciplinary complaints and suicide risk is highly important, given

the reported number of police officers under investigation.

The reality however, is quite different, 900 officers is a lot of potentially suicidal people,

which doesn’t compare with the actual low suicide rate in the QPS (as compared to the

general population, and as discussed above). Not all disciplinary sanctions are expected

to carry cognitive processing that might lead to suicide ideation, particularly where the

disciplinary sanction is at the lower end of the disciplinary continuum. Based on the

Queensland Police Service Administration Act (1990), disciplinary sanctions that may be

imposed under the Administration regulations are:

a) cautioning or reprimand;

(b) a deduction from the officer’s salary or wages of an

amount equivalent to a fine of 2 penalty units;

(c) a reduction in the officer’s level of salary or wages (not

being a reduction to a level outside that applicable to an

62 officer of that rank);

(d) forfeiture or deferment of a salary increment or

increase;

(e) a reduction in the officer’s rank or classification;

(f) dismissal from the police service.

While I have made reference to the ‘moral’ offences such as child sex offences or possession of child pornography, most offences are likely to be considered ‘everyday’ offences described above as ‘officer behaviour’ offences. These ‘everyday’ offences such as failing to report for duty and insubordination to superiors, which would typically result in a reprimand, or possibly deduction of salary, are unlikely to result in in-group banishment, particularly where these offences might be ‘one off’ offences.

While ‘moral’ offences might be placed on one end of a continuum, at the other end of the offence continuum, are what is described as the ‘Noble cause’ offences, described by

Assfalg (2005) and others (Crank & Caldero, 2000; Kleinig, 2002) as ‘Noble Cause

Corruption’. According to Assfalg (2005), a Queensland Police Inspector employed under the Churchill Fellowship to examine international ‘Noble Cause Corruption’,

Assfalg states’ that:

‘On occasions, often just rare occasions, police officers who have reached the limit of their human capacity to tolerate further perceived injustice, may feel tempted to try to level the playing field with criminals, by taking shortcuts in compliance with

63 their statutory obligations and also manipulating evidence. Whilst there is no excuse

for this type of behaviour and it cannot be rationalised or justified as being acceptable

in any circumstances, it becomes understandable and some level of sympathy for

police actions is often evoked’ (Pg 10).

While ‘Noble’ offences are subject to the full continuum of the disciplinary options,

according to Assfalg (2005), ‘Noble Cause’ offences may evoke a sense of sympathy from fellow officers for an officer that is caught committing such an offence. Martin

(2009), goes on to state that;

Disciplinary investigations on occasions reveal a ‘wilful blindness’ by organisational

members who are suspected of having witnessed improper conduct by colleagues, yet they failed in their duty to report the matter (Pg 16) - As is the mandatory requirement of

Queensland Police officers, as discussed above.

Disciplinary matters within the QPS therefore operate on a cultural continuum, where

some offences are considered ‘moral’ offences, which might result in in-group

banishment and therefore go some way towards enabling acts of suicide through

abandonment and lack of support from colleagues, while ‘Noble’ offences, while

incurring internal and potentially external disciplinary sanctions, may serve to ‘protect’ the officer from in-group banishment, through a process of in-group sympathy from the officer’s colleagues as described by Assfalg (2005).

64 Given that 15 years has elapsed since Cantor et al.’s (1995) research on Queensland

Police suicide, little to nothing has been done to follow-up the recommendations from this study. In summarising their findings, Cantor et al. stated that ‘the proximity in time

of disciplinary events and suicides was striking’. Fifteen years ago, Cantor et al. implored

that future studies should explore the interactions between these factors. As a result, a

research undertaking, aimed at exploring the relationship between police suicide and

disciplinary sanctions needs to be examined.

The Werther effect

The Werther effect was first decribed by Phillips (1974) after the descriptive publication

of Goethe’s (1774) novel ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’. What followed was a series

of ‘copycat’ suicides fittingly similar to the suicide graphically portrayed and intimately

detailed in Goethe’s publication. The Werther effect is described when a suicide increase

is noted in a population after a much publicized suicide and those suicides typically

mimic or share traits of the original suicide (Pirkis et al., 2006). When considering the

Werther effect, consideration must be given to the fact that by the very nature of police

work, officers will be exposed to suicidal acts and that they will learn effective suicide

methods. Crosby and Sacks (2002) suggested that suicide ideation, planning suicide, and

suicide attempts were more likely to occur when individuals were exposed to the suicide of another person.

65 In 1993 a now infamous Australian Police Journal entitled ‘suicide issue’ was issued

depicting some of the most shocking and bizarre suicides investigated by Australian

police. The police journal was widely circulated amongst police at that time, depicting

photographs of the deceased following the suicidal acts, descriptions of how the acts were

performed and accounts from the investigating officers. This journal gives some

suggestion that police officers are more exposed to suicidal images and literature than the

general public.

In discussing the Australian Police Journal suicide article of 1993 ‘The Australian’,

(Kearney, 2007) reported that:

Police across the country remember vividly the issue that became possibly the Journal's most famous edition - the 1993 suicide issue which detailed a series of suspicious and grisly suicides. The pictures and stories were disturbing (one case detailed the death of a man who cut off the tips of his fingers and big toe before killing himself). There were scores of complaints, but the issue sold out, as did a second and third print run. The issue

is now a collectors' item. (The Australian, 9 Jan 2007)

Suicidal acts can occur more frequently amongst populations that have been exposed to

information, knowledge or visual representations of suicidal acts or persons, particularly

those persons with which the reader can identify (Pirkis & Blood, 2001; Schmidtke and

Hafner, 1988). As a result, when people learn how to suicide, and know the intimate details, they will be more ‘able’ to complete the act when they are themselves in a

66 heightened state of agitated stress, and therefore they will require less complex cognitive

processing when considering the means for suicide, the mechanics of putting together the

means to produce the act.

The Werther effect has potential implications for police officers who are exposed to human suffering through suicide and accidental death. At an individual level, officers see people who have completed suicide and learn effective ways to suicide through on the job exposure. This exposure potentially increases their capacity for completed suicides in a similar way to that postulated through the Werther effect. Police officers are arguably at a heightened risk for completed suicides in that they don’t necessarily need to spend much time thinking about how they would complete the suicidal act, as it is likely that they, through their exposure of suicidal acts and suicide literature are learned as to the effective means of suicide.

Interestingly though, despite significant exposure to suicides and suicide literature, QPS

suicide rates appear to be lower than the general population, suggesting that some other factor might be mediating this effect! No studies have looked at attempting to explore the factors associated with Queensland police suicide, particularly those factors that may act to protect officers against suicide. Therefore an examination of the ‘traditional’ suicide factors warrants some investigation within this population, but equally important, is an examination of those factors that might potentially operate to protect officers.

67 Police attitudes towards Suicide

According to Clark and White (2000) many police officers still view suicide as disgraceful, cowardly, dishonouring, a weakness, or a failure. In interviewing a retired

United States police officer about his perception of how his fellow officers would respond if he told them he was suicidal, Clark and White (2000) report that the officer stated "They would tell me, 'you're crazy, you're not a cop, you're crazy. You don't belong on this job'. How could I go to somebody and say I'm gonna kill myself. What support would I get? Who would help me?" (Pg 1)

According to Stack and Wasserman, (1992) attitudes towards suicide found in the

subcultures of socio-demographic groups can be important correlates of actual suicidal

behavior. Within the police context, where suicide is met with strong negative attitudes,

such attitudes may serve as a protective factor against suicide in police. Sale et al. (1975)

states that the promotion of certain ‘anti-suicide’ attitudes can be instrumental to the

primary prevention of suicide.

Suicide interventions and training offered to police

Recruit psychometric screening is and of itself recognised as a suicide prevention

intervention, according to Jacinta Hawgood from the Australian institute of Suicide

research and prevention at Griffith University (Queensland). In speaking about

Queensland Police Suicide in the Courier Mail 26th of April 2008, Hawgood states that

68 'the psychological screening that occurs when police are recruited does tend to ensure

officers are tough enough and resilient enough to cope with the job.’

All recruits progressing through the police academy are educated by the HSO in relation

to Police stress, stress management and the identification of depressive symptoms within

themselves and amongst their colleagues. Most FYC's are followed up within their first

year and provided with further training from the HSO in relation to stress management.

Hawgood (2008) argues that the problem with this training is that this psychoeducation

tends to be couched in terms of operational support, as opposed to emotional support. For

example, the importance of stress management is so that an officer can complete their duties unaffected by stress, as opposed to a need to manage stress for personal mental health and wellbeing.

Hawgood (2008) reports that two fundamental factors need to be addressed in managing

police suicide.

1. Psychological screening needed to be widened so that recruits are better selected

2. 'Police culture' needs to change.

As discussed previously, a big part of ‘Police culture’ entails access to the mateship

networks and a reliance of mateship support for coping. Where that support network

becomes eroded, it is proposed that officers become more at risk for suicide. Following

69 Hawgood’s (2008) assertion that the police culture needs to change, careful consideration

needs to be given before any change should be considered.

Police force attitudes to Officer Suicide research

Through the QPS public website, the organisation reports that it supports external

requests to conduct research within the organisation. The QPS reports that they are

willing to support external application for research that meet the following objectives.

(http://www.police.qld.gov.au/services/research/).

These objectives include:

 Quality control of research costs and benefits to the QPS

 Utility of research methodology to applicants aims and objectives; and

 The right of individuals to privacy and confidentiality.

The QPS outlines particular research priorities that are outlined in the QPS Research

Priorities document. According to the QPS website, the QPS Research Priorities document provides a guide for researchers and research funding bodies who may wish to undertake research projects within the QPS.

According to this document, the current research priorities within the QPS (2009) are:

 Community Safety and Engagement

 Crime Management

70  Traffic Policing

 Professional Standards and Ethical Practice.

It might be assumed that a research proposal focusing on suicide, disciplinary matters and

mateship would fit under the ‘Professional Standards and Ethical Practice’ category.

Under this category, the following research questions and specific issues of interest are outlined by the QPS under the 2009 research priorities.

Professional and ethical conduct priorities

1. Examination of how the increasing level of civilianisation of some police roles has

changed the number, distribution or type of complaints made by the public, and the

impact on complaints management strategies.

2. How effective are current training and education strategies to prevent police officer

misconduct and what is considered best practice internationally?

3. Have community expectations of police officers changed over the past 20 years and, if

so, how should the Service adapt to meet current expectations?

Workplace health and Safety priorities:

1. What are the best management strategies for addressing potential health and wellbeing

issues among communications staff?

2. An evaluation of the effects of policing and stress on metabolic and cardiovascular

outcomes.

71 3. Impact of fatigue on officers’ health and performance.

A final point mentioned on the QPS research website, states that, ‘Policing and criminal

justice issues generate a substantial amount of academic interest and therefore the

Service receives a substantial number of requests to conduct research each year. The

QPS Research Committee seeks to facilitate quality research projects that build upon our knowledge of the delivery of policing services to the community, the corporate management of a large and diverse organisation that is the Queensland Police Service, and inform the strategic direction of policing in Queensland. The QPS Research

Committee may consider applications on the basis of their relevance to the current QPS

Research Priorities’.

From this it would appear that the QPS decides what relevant research is and how this

research best meets the needs of the QPS organisation.

According to a recent article published by Barron (2008), when attempting to conduct external research with police organisations a number of difficulties arise. Firstly, Barron

(2008) states that police organisations do not usually release disciplinary or HR data for research into organisational stress. Similarly, few organisations keep any information on the prevalence of self-harm and suicide among police officers.

One explanation posited by Barron (2008) is that ‘employees, such as police organisations, are legally bound to consider the available research and the experiences of

72 other organisations (especially the public service) and industries when determining whether injuries are foreseeable (in this study, suicide). This includes taking action to prevent an injury, rather than responding to the injury once it has been sustained by the employee’.

Barron (2008) goes on to state that, ‘Any information that is available is not usually released for review due to operational reasons and the likelihood that such information may attract negative media attention.

A recent decision by the New South Wales District Court (Guff vs Commissioner of

Police, 2007) has raised particular attention throughout police organisations after it was determined by the court that the police organisation was responsible for the death of one of its members. In this case, the family of the officer was awarded compensation, despite the fact that his death was from the result of suicide. The NSW court found that the NSW

Police Force was liable. The court determined that the officer’s death was due to the officer’s employment with the NSW police, and as such state legal precedent was made.

From Barron’s (2008) discussion, it could be taken that, if research was permitted into a particular mental illness or condition suffered by police, and that through research the organisation was found to be in some way contributing to the condition, the organisation would be legally bound to consider amending such practices, or putting in place systems that might prevent such an occurrence. In the absence of the research however, the

73 organisation is not legally bound to act, and as such is not required to outlay costs and

resources to amend workplace practices and conditions.

It would appear that the risk of this occurring with the QPS at this time would be mediated by the capacity of the research committee’s ability to vet research, this would appear evident through the website’s decree that, ‘The QPS Research Committee may consider applications on the basis of their relevance to the current QPS Research

Priorities’.

Therefore the Research Committee is driven by research that interests the research

committee. While the Research Committee sits within the governance of the ‘Ethical

Standards Command’, it would appear that the Research Committee is not an ‘Ethics

Committee’. An ‘Ethics Committee’ is a board of professionals who, using specific

ethical guidelines, in particular those prescribed by the Australian National Health and

Medical Research Council (NH&MRC, 2007) decide whether a particular research

undertaking is ethical. Is the research likely to cause physical, emotional or psychological

harm to the research participants and do the research aims justify the research

undertaking? Is the research driven by empirical evidence and can a professional

argument, backed by empirical evidence support the need for the research?

Confusion may exist in relation to the QPS’s Research Committee’s function. It would appear that where the Research Committee decides that a research proposal fits within the

current research priorities, the research proposal is then considered in terms of its ethical

74 considerations. Therefore, if a research proposal is not supported by the QPS Research

Committee, this generally does not suggest that the research proposal is unethical, it simply may not be approved on the basis that the research proposal does not fit within the

current research interests of the QPS, or focuses on an area of research that the QPS

Research Committee feels is not an area of research that may yield positive outcomes for

the QPS as suggested by Barron (2008).

A more recent approach to researching police populations has been achieved through

seeking research approval through police unions rather than the police organisation itself

(Berg, Hem, Lau & Ekberg, 2006). Police unions operate to support police officers with industrial matters and advocacy for police entitlements and working conditions. Police unions typically only include police officers within their membership and have access to police officers through union publications and media releases.

While a significant international body of knowledge exists in relation to police suicides, it

is evident that this knowledge does not extend to policing precincts within Australia, and in particular Queensland, as is the focus on this study. Whether this dearth of research is the result of a lack of Australian academic interest in the issue or reluctance on the organisation to allow for such research is not known. Accessing the QPS ESC research

proposals over the past ten years might be one way of establishing the academic interest

in this area, however such a release of information would be most unlikely, even if such information was kept. It might not be in the interest of the QPS to advertise what research topics they deem to ‘not’ be in the interest of the QPS.

75 Given the expectation that applying to research police suicide in the QPS will not be met with support (from the QPS), the organisations’ reaction to the research application will be discussed. Where the research is rejected on the basis that it does not support the research interests of the QPS (and not on the basis of ethical considerations) an evaluation of alternate approaches to researching this population might be warranted in

an effort to assist future independent research undertaking within these closed

populations.

76 Chapter 4. Aims and Hypothesis.

In acknowledging that no dedicated records or research exist in relation to police suicide

since the Cantor et al (1995) study (over 15 years ago), this research aims to fill the gap

of information in the area of police suicide, by firstly attempting to identify those officers

that have committed suicide after the Cantor et al (1995) study, and secondly by

exploring a range of potential factors implicated in suicides amongst this population.

The dearth of research in relation to police suicide means that police psychologists can only speculate as to what might be potential contributing factors for suicide amongst this population. This problem is further magnified on the basis that mental health rates are not typically reported amongst this population (as discussed), and therefore to what degree mental health issue impact on this population and subsequently suicidality, is not known.

As a result this study aims to explore the traditional mental health factors associated with suicide, which include Depression, Anxiety, and PTSD, and attempt to assess the degree to which these factors might influence suicidal ideation. A further aim of this study is to report the rates of Depression, Anxiety and PTSD amongst this population. It is expected

that those officers that present with higher rates of Anxiety, Depression or PTSD, will

rate higher on the suicide ideation.

Further to the dearth of research in Queensland Police Suicide, this study also aims to explore the potential impact of other ‘traditional’ suicide factors, such as Marital Status,

Length of Service, and Age. As is the case with the mental health factors, any potential

77 findings in relation to the impact that these variables may have on suicide, will assist police psychologists in their risk assessment of police officers and add to the professional knowledge in relation to this issue. Based on the literature, it is expected that officers that report experiencing marital difficulties will present with higher rates of suicide ideation.

With regards to Length of Service, it is hypothesized that officers with shorter lengths of service will present with higher rates of suicide ideation due to having less internal social support networks. Rather than present as a ‘typical’ convex pattern, the pattern proposed in this study is hypothesized to present in a downward pattern.

In appreciating the significant organizational changes that have occurred within the QPS

over the past 20 years (Since the Fitzgerald Enquiry), how these changes potentially

impact on officers is not known. No research exists in relation to the impact of these

changes on Queensland Police officers. The new whistleblowing laws and new

disciplinary sanctioning has arguably had an impact on how social networks potentially

operate within the QPS, and their impact on police mental health is not known. As a

result, this study further aims to examine the impact that these variables might have on

officers suicidal thoughts.

In addition to exploring contributing factors to suicide and suicide ideation, this study also aims to explore the protective potential of support networks, described in this study as “mateship”. No previous attempt has been made to study police networks from the

78 perspective of their potential to act as protectors and enablers of suicidal thoughts and actions.

On this basis, the primary aim of this study is to identify if a relationship between

mateship and suicide exists within the QPS. Where officers perceive less support from

their colleagues, it is hypothesized that officers will be more likely to think about

committing suicide. Where officers report high satisfaction with their mateship network,

these officers will present with low rates of suicide ideation. It is further hypothesized

that officers that are subject to a disciplinary matter will be at a higher risk of reporting

less satisfaction with the police mateship network due to a reported police culture of

shunning recalcitrant members.

In an attempt to understand the absence of research enthusiasm to take up Cantor et al’s

(1995) call for further research into Queensland police suicide, an evaluation of the

current QPS research application process will be conducted, with the aim of providing

some observations and comment in relation to how this process may act to deter

researchers. From these observations it is hoped that some recommendations can be made

to assist independent researchers in their endeavour to navigate the QPS research process.

79 Method

Ethics was approved through the James Cook University Ethics committee on 16th of July

2008. The James Cook University Ethics committee approves research applications on the governing guidelines espoused by the Australian National Health and Medical

Research Council. Permission to undertake this research was sought from the Queensland

Police Services Ethical Standards Command (ESC) on the 30th of July 2008. On the 12th of November 2008 the ESC advised that:

Re: External research request - "Internal Social Support", A Protective Factor

Associated with Low Suicide Rates Within the Queensland Police Service.

I refer to your correspondence of 30 July 2008 requesting permission to conduct research within the QPS.

The QPS research committee has carefully considered your application and has decided not to approve the research.

The Service receives many applications from external researchers, and each is

thoroughly reviewed in terms of the benefits and costs to the Service, as well as the

standard of the methodology. The volume of requests to conduct research, together with

our own internal needs to undertake research, means that the QPS cannot approve every external research application.

Thank you for your application. I regret that the QPS is unable to assist you on this

occasion, and wish you well in your future research

80 Participants

While the QPS ethics committee did not support the research, a further research request

was forwarded to the Queensland Police Union of Employees (QPUE), seeking a request

to study Police Union members rather than police officers. The QPUE membership is

drawn entirely from sworn Queensland Police Non-Commissioned Officers, including all

officers below the rank of Inspector. The QPUE boasts a 99% Queensland Police non- commissioned officer membership, and actively serves to promote police welfare. The

QPUE were informed that the ESC did not approve the research.

A fundamental limitation with the QPUE was that they used the QPS internal e-mailing system to connect with union members, and given that the research was not supported by the QPS It was felt that it would not be appropriate to promote the research through the

QPUE through the QPS resources (namely the QPS email system).

In view of this limitation, the QPUE does supply a free monthly Union journal to every

police station throughout the state, and permission was sought to advertise the research using the union journal. In addition to support provided by the QPUE, further support was provided through an 'unofficial' Queensland Police facebook site entitled

'Queensland's thin blue line', with a membership of 822 officers. An article was submitted twice to the QPUE journal advertising the research and calling for participants to take part in completing an on-line Police mateship survey (Appendix A). After approval was

81 granted from the ‘facebook’ site convenor, the research was promoted using this site

(Appendix B).

Two hundred and one Operational Queensland Police officers who are currently members

of the QPUE responded to the survey advertising in either the union journal or through

the ‘facebook’ site and completed the research survey. According to figures obtained in

the QPS's Annual Review 2006 – 2007, 9574 operational police officers were employed

in the QPS between this period.

Materials.

The survey consisted of 88 questions, with 9 questions pertaining to general nominal data, i.e. rank, age, length of service and if they are currently subject to a disciplinary proceeding. Two questions pertained to relationship questions were also included. The remaining questions were drawn from standard published tests (see Appendix C).

Officers completed the 14 question Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The

HADS has been administered and researched amongst a Norwegian police population

(Berg, Hem, Lau & Ekberg, 2006) and retired police (Tuohy, Knussen & Wrennall, 2005)

to screen for those officers presenting with depression. The HADS includes questions

such as 'I have lost interest in things' and was scored using a four point Likert Scale.

According to Bjelland, Dahl, Haug and Neckelmann (2002), the HADS has good internal

consistency, with a Cronbach alpha coefficient reported across multiple studies between

82 .68 and .93. In the current study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient for Depression was .877 and Anxiety .903.

This study screened officers for PTSD using the 'PC-PTSD’ screen as used by Bliese,

Wright, Adler, Cabrera, Costa and Hoge, (2008) amongst soldiers returning from combat.

The justification for screening for PTSD came from Violanti’s (2004) report that certain traumatic police work exposures increase the risk of high level PTSD symptoms, which subsequently increase the risk of high alcohol use and suicide ideation. Associations with

suicide, mateship and PTSD have been reported by several recent research articles

(Krysinska & Lester, 2010; Belik et al., 2009; Stephens & Long, 1999).

The four item PTSD screen uses a dichotomous rating of ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Questions on the

PTSD Screen include; in your life, have you ever had any experience that was so frightening, horrible, or upsetting that, in the past month, you felt numb or detached from others, activities, or your surroundings? According to Prins et al. (2003) the PC-PTSD screen demonstrated moderate agreement with the PCL (PTSD Check List) with a Kappa coefficient value of .58. In the current study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient for the PC-

PTSD screen was .805.

In an effort to obtain a measure of ‘mateship’, the 54 item ‘Social Support Questionnaire’

(SSQ) (Sarason, Sevine, Basham & Sarason, 1983) was used. The SSQ has previously

been used by Heitzman and Kaplan (1988) and Graf (1986) as a measure of a police

officer’s perceived satisfaction with their ‘Social Support’ networks. Questions on the

83 ‘Social Support Questionnaire’ include; ‘whose lives do you feel that you are an

important part of? Whom could you really count on to help you out in a crisis situation, even though they would have to go out of their way to do so? According to Sarason et al.

(1983), the Social Support Questionnaire had good internal consistency with a Cronbach

alpha coefficient reported of .97. In the current study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was

.98.

Suicide ideation was assessed using the Paykel’s (1974) five item ‘measure for suicidal ideation’. This adapted measure was used by Burke and Mikkelsen (2006) in their research on suicidal ideation in Norwegian Police officers. Questions on the ‘Measure for

Suicidal ideation’ measure include; have you ever felt that life was not worth living?

Have you ever reached the point where you seriously considered taking your life, or perhaps made plans how you would go about doing it? In the current study, the Cronbach alpha coefficient was .81.

Procedure

After reading the research advertisement in the QPUE journal or the 'Queensland's thin

blue line' facebook site, an officer agreeing to complete the 'Police mateship survey’ was requested to access the research survey by either logging onto the weblink provided in the article or typing in the weblink into their internet search engine. Once inside the ‘Survey

Monkey’ web-link, the officer was no longer identifiable through their e-mail address, personal details, service number and identifying particulars and participation was anonymous.

84 Prior to commencing the survey, officers were required to complete the consent form

before the computer program allowed access. Officers were not able to proceed to the

survey until they had indicated that they had understood the research aims, as described

in the initial e-mailed information.

Individual officers were required to complete one 88 question questionnaire, and

provided an initial undertaking that they had not completed more than one questionnaire.

Officers were thanked for their voluntary participation, and were required to submit their entry by pressing the submit button. Once submitted, the computer program automatically provided participants with information in relation to available professional support services. This information was aimed at directing those participants who self reported that they were experiencing suicidal ideations to the relevant professional

support services.

Completed research questionnaires are stored and securely saved within the 'School of

Psychology, Cairns’ secure database folder. The number of officer’s completing the questionnaire was recorded and all data is retrievable only by the research investigator.

Following the initial notification of the research, officers were reminded to participate in

the research two months later in the QPUE journal, and access to the internal web link remained open for four months.

85 Subject recruitment commenced on the 11th of March 2009 and ceased on the 18th of

August 2009. Two Hundred and One Queensland Police participated in the research by completing the research survey. Surveys were accessed and completed using Survey

Monkey software. Participants completed the HADS, PTSD Screen, Measure for Suicidal

Ideation, and Service and Personal Related Nominal data.

86 Results

Data was analysed using SPSS 17.0. A probability level of .05 was employed for all statistical tests unless otherwise reported. Prior to conducting any statistical evaluations, preliminary analyses were conducted to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity, multicollinearity and homoscedasticity.

Of the 201 responses, twenty participants failed to complete the Social Support

Questionnaire. Given the layout of the Survey on the Survey Monkey program, the

HADS, PTSD Screen, Measure for Suicidal Ideation, and 'Service Related Nominal Data' were presented on the first page, while the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ) was presented on the second page, requiring participants to click next at the bottom of the first page to access the SSQ. It might be assumed that these twenty participants failed to realize that the next part of the survey (the Social Support Questionnaire) was on the second page. Statistical analysis was conducted 'excluding cases pairwise', excluding survey responses only when the specific statistical analysis identified that data in that survey was missing.

The Suicide Score used in the statistical analysis was gained by summing across the five suicide domains, in the same manner described by Meneese and Yutrzenka (1990).

According to Meneese and Yutrzenka, subjects receive a score equal to the greatest magnitude of suicide ideation positively endorsed. Nineteen officers reported a previous suicide attempt, representing 9% of the subject population. Two subjects recorded wishing they were dead 'always', while 6 wished they were dead sometimes (2% of total).

87 More than a quarter (55 subjects) reported that they sometimes thought about taking their own lives, even if they wouldn’t actually do it, amounting to a suicide ideation prevalence rate of 27.4%. Fifteen percent of subjects reported that they have sometimes reached the point where they seriously considered taking their life, and had considered making plans about how they would go about doing it.

Mateship and suicide: Can levels of perceived mateship predict levels of suicide ideation? Do other factors (describe in the literature) impact on levels of suicide ideation amongst police officers?

The 'Social Scores' variable was achieved by summing the total scores across the 27 items on the SSQ that asked subjects to rate how many friends they thought that they could rely on in relation to a particular question such as "Who can you really count on to support you in major decisions you make"; respondents were asked to rate between 'zero'

(no one) to 'nine'. Total scores on the Social Score measure range between a possible score of zero and 243.

The Satisfaction Scores were achieved by summing the response to each question, resulting in a possible score of between 27 and 163, from a Likert scale response ranging between 6 (very satisfied), 5 (fairly satisfied), 4 (a little satisfied), 3 (a little dissatisfied),

2 (fairly dissatisfied), 1 (very dissatisfied).

88 The relationship between social scores (number of mates reported) and reported satisfaction (satisfaction with 'mateship' support) was investigated using Pearson product-

moment correlation coefficient. There was a strong positive correlation between the two

variables, r =.671, n = 184, p < .0005, with high social scores associated with high

satisfaction scores.

Standard Multiple regression was performed to assess the ability of a number of measures

(Discipline history, Social Score, Presence of a medical condition, Anxiety, Depression,

PTSD, Length of Service) to predict suicidal ideations. Given the strong positive

correlation between Social Score and Satisfaction Score, only Social Score was used in

the Standard Multiple regression. For the same reason, Age and Rank was not included in the analysis, given the strong positive correlation with Length of Service (which was used in the analysis). Also, the 'Relationship Stress' variable was excluded from the Multiple

Regression due to the large correlation with the 'Relationship Problems' variable.

Using the enter method, a significant model emerged F(9,174) = 9.434, p<.0005. The model resulted in an Adjusted R Square of .293, suggesting that the model accounts for

29.3 percent of the variance in the criterion variable (suicidal ideations). Significant and non-significant variables are shown in table 2.

89 Table 2

Multiple Regression model for police suicidal ideations

Predictor variable Beta p B

Depression .243 .010 .877 ** Mateship score -.206 .003 -.011 ** Anxiety .200 .018 .819 * Whistleblower .100 .124 1.59 Length Service .095 .137 .198 PTSD .069 .384 .139 Discipline history -.038 .564 -.328 Medical cond. .001 .992 .007 Relationship probs. -.001 .987 -.008

Notes: R²= .293. * = p < .05, ** = p < .01

The results from table 2 indicate that the more an officer presents with depression, as measured by the HADS, the greater the suicidal ideation (Beta = .243). The results also indicate that the more an officer presents with anxiety, as measured by the HADS, the greater the suicidal ideation (Beta = .200). Those who reported more mates in the

Queensland Police Service, had less suicidal ideations (Beta = -.206).

Given that a Pearson product-moment correlations coefficient could not be performed between 'Relationship problems' and 'Relationship stress', it could not be ascertained whether 'Relationship problems' and 'Relationship Stress' were strongly correlated and therefore may act to impact on the Multiple Regression results, if both were included in the variable set.

90 In an attempt to assess the impact that Relationship stress has on suicidal ideation, a

second multiple regression was performed using the same predictor variables, however

replacing the 'Relationship problems' variable with the Relationship stress' variable.

'Relationship Stress' had no significant influence on the dependent variable when

included in the variable set (beta = .050, p = .458).

Table 3

Multiple Regression model for police suicidal ideations with

'relationship stress'

Predictor variable Beta p B

Depression .233 .014 .841 * Mateship score -.202 .004 -.011 ** Anxiety .194 .021 .794 * Whistleblower .105 .106 .167 Length Service .101 .115 .209 PTSD .071 .365 .144 Discipline history -.032 .624 -.279 Medical cond. .003 .961 .031 Relationship stress. .050 .458 .389

Notes: * = p < .05, ** = p < .01

The mental health measures and suicide: It is expected that officers who rate high on

Depression and/or Anxiety, will rate high on suicide ideation.

Depression and Anxiety Scores for the Depression and Anxiety variables were collected by identifying the seven questions on the HADS that were used to rate Depression and

91 Anxiety respectively. The seven depression and anxiety questions were summed from the

Likert Scale where ‘Not at All’ rated a 0, ‘A little but it doesn't worry me’ rated 1, ‘yes,

but not too badly’ rated a 2, and ‘very definitely and quite badly’ rated a 3, to give both the Depression and Anxiety measures. Possible scores range from 0 to 21.

According to Zigmond and Snaith (1983), the HADS is rated on a four item rating scale

where scores between zero and seven are rated as normal, eight to 10 as mild, 11 to 14 as

moderate and 15 to 21 as severe. Twelve percent of subjects rated in the severe range of

anxiety, 19% in the moderate anxiety range and 22.8% in the mild range of anxiety. Forty

six percent of subjects fell within the normal range of anxiety. On the HADS Depression

Scale, 4.47% of subjects rated within the severe depression range, 12% of subjects rated

within the moderate depression range, while 16% rated within the mild range. Sixty

seven percent of respondents fell within the normal range.

The PTSD variable was measured across four PC-PTSD related questions, where scores were assessed on a yes/no scale with yes scored as a 'one' and no scored as a 'zero'.

Scores were summed across the questions resulting in a possible total score of between

'zero' and 'four'. According to Prins et al. (2004), scoring of the PC-PTSD is achieved by summing the individual responses across the four questions. Prins et al. (2004) suggest that a score of three or more should be considered positive. Thirty one percent of subjects rated positive PC-PTSD scores, with a M = 1.65 and SD = 1.55. In light of the percentage of officers meeting the criteria for PTSD (31.8%), 29.9% of subjects self reported that they are currently diagnosed as having a mental or psychological disorder.

92 The relationship between mateship and PTSD was assessed using the Pearson product-

moment correlation coefficient, using the ‘Total Satisfaction’ measure as a measure of mateship. This assessment was conducted in line with Stephens and Long’s (1999) assertion that PTSD and mateship were associated. There was a moderate negative correlation between the two variables, r = -.334, n = 201, p <.01, with higher levels of

PTSD associated with lower levels of reported satisfaction with the mateship network.

No association was found between PTSD and length of service, following Belik et al.’s

(2009) report of a dose response effect with PTSD, arguing that officers with more

service would be more likely to present with higher rates of PTSD, r = .073, n = 201, p

<.300.

Following Schwarzer, Knoll, and Rieckmann’s (2004) study in relation to the protective value of social support networks and work place mental health, the relationship between

perceived mateship and depression was investigated using Pearson product-moment

correlation coefficient. There was a medium, negative correlation between the two

variables, r = -.392, n = 184, p .0005, with high depression scores associated with lower

levels of perceived social support. Similar findings were found, again using Pearson

product-moment correlation coefficient to compare anxiety and social support. There was

a medium, negative correlation between the two variables, r = .-368, n = 184, p .0005,

indicating that high anxiety scores were associated with lower levels of perceived social

support.

93 The Disciplinary/Whistleblowers measure and suicide: It is expected that officers subject

to a disciplinary matter or a Whistleblower will rate higher on suicide ideation!

The 'Disciplinary History' variable was measured based on responses to a yes/no

dichotomous rating scale asking police officers if they were currently subject to an

internal disciplinary matter. Fifteen percent (n = 30) of respondents reported that they

were currently subject to a police disciplinary proceeding.

Of those respondents reporting to be subject to a disciplinary matter, these subjects were

asked to report what disciplinary outcomes they felt that they might receive in response to the investigation. Subjects rated their responses on a three point scale, between, expecting

that the matter would be dealt with by way of reprimand or guidance (n = 16)(53%), expecting to lose rank in response to the disciplinary matter that they were facing (n =

5)(16.6%), expecting that they would lose their employment (n = 7)(23.3%), while 6% did not record a response. A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact of 'Expected disciplinary outcomes' and suicidal ideations. Subjects were divided into the three groups (Reprimand group, Loss of rank

group, Loss of Job group).There was no statistically significant difference at the p < .05 level in suicidal ideation scores for the three disciplinary outcomes groups: F(2,25) =

.090, p = .914. Using a one-way between-groups analysis of variance, no statistical significance was found between 'Expected disciplinary outcomes' and HADS Depression and Anxiety. This finding was supported by the Multiple Regression, in that being subject to disciplinary matter, was not a predictor of higher rates of suicide ideation.

94 Given the small number of responses in each of the discipline groups, consideration must

be given to the possibility that a non-significant result may be due to insufficient power

(although unlikely given the low F ratio). A Post Hoc Power analysis was conducted producing a Power of 0.05 (T test two tailed) resulting in a very small effect size (Cohen,

1988). Improving Power would require a sample size of at least 74 subjects.

Subjects reporting disciplinary matters differed in terms of the time spent waiting for a

disciplinary outcome. Eight subjects reported becoming aware of the disciplinary matter that week, 4 within the month, 5 had been waiting three months for an outcome, 4 had

waited six months, and 10 reported waiting 12 months or more. A one-way between-

groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact that waiting for a

disciplinary outcome (Time since charge) had on Suicidal ideations (Suicide Total).

Subjects were divided into the five groups as discussed above (1 week since charge, 1

month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 or more months). There was no statistically significant

difference at the p < .05 level in suicidal ideations for the five groups: F(4, 26) = .817, p

= .526. Despite not achieving statistical significance, Suicidal Ideation scores did show

some slight increase over time as demonstrated in figure 1. Again consideration must be

given to the low power (P = .070) of this statistical outcome.

95 Figure 1. Suicidal Ideation and Disciplinary History With Time

A one-way between-groups analysis of variance was conducted to explore the impact that waiting for a disciplinary outcome had on HADS Depression and Anxiety. No

statistically significant difference was found at the p < .05 level.

The 'Whistleblower' variable was assessed by asking subjects if they have generated a complaint against a police officer, for which they are currently protected under the

Whistle Blowers Act. Only four percent of respondents reported as whistleblowers (n =

8). Given the history of the QPS, particularly the Fitzgerald Enquiry, it was felt that it was important to assess if an officer completing the survey was subject to the protection

96 of the Whistle Blowers Act and what impact that might have on an officer's

psychological health, particularly their suicidal ideations. Of the eight officers subject to

the Whistleblower’s legislation, one reported a previous suicide attempt.

Again actual rates of officers protected under the whistle blowers legislation is not

available information, so comparisons could not be made against the actual rates.

An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the Suicide scores for subjects

who identified as whistleblowers and those who identified as non-whistleblowers. There

was no significant difference in scores for whistleblowers (M = 8.62, SD = 3.37) and non-whistleblowers, M = 8.98, SD = 3.12; t(199) = -.322, p= .748 (two tailed). An independent-samples t-test was conducted to compare the HADS depression scores for subjects who were subject to the protection of the whistleblowers act, and those who were not. There was a significant difference in scores for Whistleblowers (M = 2.5, SD =

.534) and non-whistleblowers, M = 1.818, SD .867; t (8.61) = 3.42, p= .008 (two-tailed).

The magnitude of the differences in the means (mean difference = .681, 95% CI: .227 to

1.13) was small (eta squared = .055). A final independent-samples t-test was conducted to

compare the HADS anxiety scores with whistleblowers and non-whistleblowers. There

was no significant difference in scores for whistleblowers (M = 1.5, SD = .755) and non- whistleblowers, M = 1.49, SD = .764; t(7.60) = .009, p = .993 (two-tailed). Again, this

finding was supported by the Multiple Regression.

97 The medical condition variable.

The 'Medical Condition' variable was assessed by asking subjects if their medical condition restricted their full operational employment. These officers would most likely be placed on alternate duties, or awaiting to return back to their original place of employment, pending recovery. Thirteen percent (n = 27) of officers reported that they were currently subject to a medical condition (as opposed to a psychological condition) that restricted their full operational employment. How this compares with actual Qld

Police medical ill health is unknown given a lack of available data in the area.

The relationship issues variable: It was expected that relationship difficulties would

result in higher rates of suicide ideation.

Subjects were asked to rate on a dichotomous measure, if they were currently experiencing relationship difficulties with their significant other (partner). Answers were reported on a yes/no rating. Fifty four respondents reported relationship difficulties

accounting for 26.9% of the subject group. Subjects were further asked to rate, the degree to which the relationship difficulty (with significant other) caused them stress on a 4 point rating scale, however in this case, significantly more subjects answered that they were having relationship stress as opposed to 'difficulties'. Sixty seven respondents reported relationship stress in response to this question, compared to forty four in the previous question (relationship difficulties), indicating that 36.6% of the respondents actually reported having relationship stress. The 'Relationship Stress' variable was

98 measured using a dichotomous measure between 'no/little' relationship stress and

'high/very high' relationship stress. Given the dichotomous nature of the two data sets a

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was not performed.

Sample demographic and representativeness and suicide: It is expected that younger officers will present with higher suicide ideation!

With regards to the 'police rank' variable, officers were instructed to indicate whether

they were currently ranked as a First Year Constable (FYC), Constable (Const), Sergeant,

(Sgt), or Senior Sergeant (S/Sgt). A normal distribution was achieved, where 36.5% of participants were S/Const's, 33.5% Sgt's, 23.1% Consts/FYC, and 6.9% S/Sgt's. This

'rank' distribution compares against the actual 'police rank' distribution percentage recorded by the QPUE as accurate on the 1st of April 2009 (S/Const, 35.17%; Sgt's,

23.9%; Const/FYC, 33.3% and S/Sgt's 7.6%), suggesting that the rank distribution within this survey is highly reflective of the actual rank distribution within the QPS at the time of the survey.

The 'Length of Service' variable was assessed on a six point Likert scale, ranging between

1 year (3% of subjects), Between 1 to 5 years (16.4% of subjects), between 5 to 10 years

(20.9% or subjects), between 10 and 15 years (18.9% of subjects), between 15 and 20 years (16.9% of subjects), and more than 20 years (23.9% subjects). Figure 2. shows a steady increase in suicide ideation in the first ten years and appears to remain relatively steady after this time.

99 Figure 2. Length of Service and Suicide ideation

The 'Age' variable was assessed by asking subjects to indicate their age range on an eight point Likert Scale. Response choices ranged from ages between 21 to 25 yrs (6% of subjects), 26 - 30 yrs (12.9% of subjects), 31 -35 yrs (17.9% of subjects), 36 to 40 yrs

(27.9% of subjects), 41 to 45 years (19.4% of subjects), 46 to 50 yrs (10.4% of subjects),

51 to 55 yrs (3.5% of subjects) and 56 to 60 yrs (2% of subjects). Suicide ideation across age groups, produced an inverted U shape distribution, where, younger officers and older officers were found to present with less suicide ideations. The highest level of suicide ideations were found in the 46 to 50 age group.

100 Figure 3. Age and Suicide ideation distribution.

The relationship between Police rank, Length of service and Age was investigated using

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. There was a strong positive correlation between the three variables as outlined in table 4.

101 Table 4

Age, Rank, Length of Service Correlations

Age Rank Length

Variable r p r p r p

Age 1

Rank .633 .000 1

Length .768 .000 .786 .000 1

Notes: Correlation is significant at the .001 level (2-tailed).

102 Discussion

A major limitation to collecting data for this research was based on the inability to use

Queensland Police Service information technology resources, particularly the QPS

internal email system. As a result alternate data collection methods were sought through

promoting the research through the Queensland Police Union journal (White, 2009),

unofficial police networks, namely Facebook (Queensland’s thin blue line) and internet

sites and advertising the weblink through known police contacts. While all police officers

are members of the union, no guarantee could be made that officers were likely to read

the Union journal, despite all officers having access to the journal. As a result, relying on

the union journal alone would have only provided a representative sample of officers that

read the Union Journal and were actively motivated to complete the survey.

With the addition of ‘Facebook’ the sample size increased, however, presented another potential confounding error, in that, officers using Facebook, may not represent the

existing police demographic serving in the QPS, and as a result provide a non-

representative sample.

Further, given the promotion of the study as a ‘police suicide study’, an additional confounding error may occur where, only those officers that are potentially suicidal or present with suicidal ideations are likely to take interest in a study aimed at exploring suicide ideations amongst police officers.

103 Supporting the validity of the data sample as a reflective measure of the current QPS officer population, a comparative rank distribution was found, where an almost identical overlay of the sample rank distribution and the current QPS officer distribution was

found.

Adding weight to the validity of the sample used was also the significant relationship found between the age, rank and length of service variables. Such a correlation suggests that as the sample increased in age, so did rank and so did length of service. Such a pattern of association is typical in the Queensland police, where age, rank and length of service are typically associated.

Suicide ideation rates amongst police

From this study the estimated prevalence rate of suicide ideation (officers that sometimes

think about taking their own lives) within the QPS is 27.4% amongst officers. Given that

the survey did not identify if these thoughts had occurred over the past 12 months, this

result cannot be considered a ‘life-time’ prevalence rate, as measured by Pirkis, Burgess

and Dunt (2000). However, within the context of the 10,000 strong membership within

the QPS, this finding would translate to 2740 officers presenting with occasional suicide

ideations.

104 If we look only at those officers who report that they always or almost always possessed thoughts about taking their own life, seven officers could be assumed to be ‘holding’

recent suicidal thoughts amounting to 3.5% of the population surveyed. The percentage

of those persons who record always or almost always possessing suicidal thoughts, might

also be more reflective of persons reported to have a ‘life time’ presentation of suicidal ideations. The 3.5 percent of officers potentially ‘holding’ the ‘life time’ presentation of suicide ideation, would translate to 350 officers across the QPS population. This compares with the Pirkis, Burgess and Dunt, (2000) findings that one in 34 people are

likely to present with suicide ideation, which would put the predicted suicide ideation

figure within the QPS population at 294 officers.

Based on Pirkis et al. (2000) study, suggesting that one in 307 suicide ideators go on to

attempt suicide, would offer a prediction of attempted suicide numbers within the QPS to

be around 32 officers who have attempted suicide within the police population (32 within

10,000 officers). The results from this study found that 19 officers amongst the 201

survey participants reported to have attempted suicide in the past, indicating that 9.45%

of respondents had previously attempted suicide. If this trend were consistent across the

entire QPS population, this would suggest that up to 945 officers within the QPS have

previously attempted suicide at some point in their lives, a rate of one in 10.5 officers.

The predicted mortality rate of QPS officers, (if one considers the research on suicide attempts and correlation with suicide completion [Fawcett et al., 1993; Gili-Planas et al.,

2001; Lyon et al., 2000; Nugent & Williams, 2001; Pirkis, Burgess & Dunt, 2000;

105 Violanti et al., 2009; Young et al., 1998]) is clearly not reflective of the current low suicide rates within the QPS, suggesting that some other factor is serving to mediate the influence of suicidal attempts and the resultant suicide completions as suggested by these researchers. Other influences appear to be working to protect suicidal ideating and attempting officers so that they don’t go on to complete the act of suicide. A lot of officers are thinking about suicide and many are going on to attempt suicide, but very few of them are actually committing suicide! This is also interesting given the Werther effect, where these officers should be well skilled to complete the act of suicide based on their educated knowledge of how to successfully complete the act. While the rate of officers reporting having previously attempted suicide is so high, it is also interesting to note, that these officers have had access to the means.

Disciplinary matters

When comparing the sample in relation to QPS disciplinary statistics, the data set found that 15% of the sample was subject to a disciplinary proceeding. According to the

'Integrity in the Queensland Police Service: QPS reform update’ (2001), the QPS

typically presents with 10% of disciplinary matters at any one time. It is acknowledged

that the ‘Integrity in the QPS’ report was based on data over a decade old and may not

accurately reflect the current disciplinary rates within the QPS, however the comparison

of 10% to 15% as presented in the current research data set does not present with an

extreme difference, and may also add weight to the validity of the current data set as a

reflective sample.

106 Particular emphasis was paid to assessing the psychological and social impact that disciplinary proceedings have on officers, particularly the degree to which these officers present with suicidal ideations. One of the aims of this study was to identify if being subject to a disciplinary matter, resulted in higher suicide ideation rates. Following

Cantor et al.’s (1995) finding that 50% of suicide completions within the QPS occurred

when those officers were subject to a disciplinary proceeding, this research failed to yield

a significant correlation between disciplinary proceedings and suicide ideations. All

officers under investigation were compared against officers that were not, and despite

Cantor et al.’s (1995) suggestion that disciplinary proceedings against officers may be a

contributing factor for QPS officer suicides, the results of this study do not support this

assertion.

Another aim of this study was to assess whether disciplinary severity had an impact on

officers’ suicidal thoughts. Officers were categorised in terms of how severe they thought

that the disciplinary outcome might be. Officers under investigation were then placed in

the reprimand, loss of rank, or loss of job group and these groups were compared in

terms of their degree of suicide ideations. It was expected that officers that perceived that they would be dealt with, with more severe punishments, such as losing their employment, would rate significantly higher on the suicide ideation measure.

107 After conducting the statistical analysis, no significant difference was found, which did not support the expectation that disciplinary severity would have an impact on the presence and degree of suicide ideations.

Another expectation of this research was that, the longer an officer waited for a

disciplinary matter to be finalised, those officers were at greater risk of developing

depression as a result of the long-term psychological pressure of not knowing what the

likely disciplinary outcome might be. The well publicised case of QPS S/Sgt Mick Isles

might serve as a case example. According to the ‘Courier Mail’ (26-09-09):

Grave concerns are held for north Queensland police officer missing since Wednesday

morning. Ayr Senior Sergeant Mick Isles was recently cleared of allegations he

improperly issued drivers’ licences, after a nine month CMC investigation.

A year later S/Sgt Isles had not been located, and is presumed by investigating officers to have likely taken his life. Extensive searches were conducted around bushland near

Ravenswood, after his abandoned car was found and his personal firearm was identified as missing. S/Sgt Isles remains missing!

According to the results from the survey, a rise in suicide ideations amongst officers was observed, as those officers spent more time waiting for the disciplinary matters to be finalised, however this observed rise was not found to be significant. As a result, this

108 study did not find that officers were significantly more likely to experience suicidal

thoughts, the longer they waited for a disciplinary matter to be finalised.

Another aim of this study was to identify if the presence of a disciplinary proceeding

resulted in a reduced satisfaction with the officer’s perceived mateship. The results in this

study did not support Hackett and Violanti’s (2003), assertion that a breach of the in- group rules, in this particular case, being subject to a disciplinary proceeding, resulted in banishment from the group.

A limitation of this study was the small numbers of subjects presenting with a

disciplinary proceeding, and also the difficulty associated with classifying the particular

disciplinary proceeding. While it is accepted that sex offences are likely to result in ‘in-

group’ banishment, this study did not classify the officers’ particular disciplinary

complaint. Alternatively, officers subject to disciplinary offences of a ‘noble’ nature may well be treated quite differently within the police culture. These officers, rather than banished, may be vehemently protected by the police culture and police union. Therefore a fundamental weakness in being able to fully understand the relationship between QPS disciplinary proceedings and mateship exists in not being able to tease out the different classifications of disciplinary investigations. While I must conclude based on the results of this study, that no relationship exists, offences that breach the moral threshold may simply be balanced by ‘noble’ offences, thereby providing an inaccurate picture of the relationship between these two variables.

109 In order to isolate the potential balancing out effect of noble vs moral breaches, the

Queensland police Ethical Standards Command needs to approve such a research

undertaking. This would allow for the researcher to work with Regional Complaints

managers (Professional Practice managers/Inspectors), the Ethical Standards Command

and the Criminal Misconduct Commission and allow access to interview transcripts

which would allow the researcher to distinguish between moral and noble breaches. As

this research has demonstrated, approval to undertake a research proposal that allowed

access to restricted police material, such as investigation transcripts of officers under

investigation would be most unlikely.

Whistleblowers

As discussed, Whistleblowers are arguably placed at a higher risk for suicide ideation

than non-Whistleblowers in a similar way as those officers that are under investigation

for offences that cross the moral threshold. Both officers have violated the police culture, one through acts that potentially bring disrepute on the workplace and the other

(Whistleblowers) brings negative attention onto the workplace through inviting non- members in to scrutinise the ethical conduct and cultural practices of that workplace. The result of these actions, therefore invariably results in banishment from the in-group and all of its subsequent benefits. Sawyer (2004) reports ‘that when the whistleblower commits a truth, a truth normally offends a mate. By offending a mate, the whistleblower offends the network of mates. The whistleblower is the outsider. Australian whistleblowers line-up against tight, well controlled networks of mateship which extend

110 into all areas of governance. If Australian whistleblowers survive, they must survive

without mates’ (Pg 9).

Surviving without your mates, according to Grace and Cohen (1998) potentially comes at

a cost, based on their study, this cost meant that one in ten Whistleblowers have a history

of attempted suicide. This research aimed to identify if Whistleblowing by police

officers, resulted in higher rates of suicide ideation amongst those officers.

Based on the findings from this study, eight officers reported being subject to the

Whistleblowers Act, and one of these officers reportedly had previously attempted suicide. While no significant difference was found between Whistleblowers and non-

Whistleblowers in terms of their current degree of suicidal ideations and acknowledging the small number of Whistleblowers in this study, this finding appears consistent with

Grace and Cohen’s (1998) 10% previous suicide attempt statistic.

In a sense, Whistleblowing can operate on a continuum in the same way as I have

described the disciplinary offence continuum. Some Whistleblowing might be seen to be

noble, such as blowing the Whistle on a child sex offender network. The small amount of

data collected in this paper in relation to Whistleblowers restricts the utility of any of the

findings. Further, it was not clear when the initial act of Whistleblowing occurred in this

study and the time frame since this act. Future research undertaking in this area would

need to have a larger sample group, cooperation and collaboration with the ESC and

111 CMC, look at the type of offence reported, ascertain whether the offence attracted media attention, was confidentiality maintained, and the time since the offence was reported.

A small significant correlation was found indicating a trend for Whistleblowers to have

some level of Depression, however little can be drawn from this given the above

mentioned limitations.

Police mateship

A primary aim of this study was to identify if a relationship between mateship and

suicide existed. Based on the results from the Multiple Regression, ‘Mateship’ produced

a significant unique contribution to explaining the dependent variable, when the variance

explained by all other variables in the model was controlled (beta = -.206, p <.003). A

negative correlation was found, where, the absence of mateship resulted in an increase in

suicide ideations. Conversely, an increase of ‘mateship’ resulted in a reduction of suicide

ideations. Such a finding adds weight to Heikkinen, Aro and Lonnqvist (1993) assertion that social support can serve as a protective and also a vulnerability factor. This also supports Lennings (1995) assertion that police use mateship as a dominant coping method and also Andrew’s (1984) case study analysis of a Queensland police officer jailed for corruption.

At what cost does an officer pay for considering reporting their mates? Firstly according

to the rules of police culture, reporting your mates would cost you your inclusionary rite

112 into the mateship network (Andrews, 1984; CJC report, 2001; Hackett & Violanti, 2003;

Saywer, 2004), therefore loss of friends and potentially being labelled a ‘dog’; secondly

you lose a primary coping method employed by police officers to cope with occupational and organisational stress caused by conducting police work and negotiating the police organisation (Barron, 2008; Lennings, 1995; Liberman, et al., 2002; loo, 2003). Thirdly, according to this study, with reduced satisfaction with the mateship network, you increase the likelihood that the officer will start thinking about committing acts of suicide, these officers will be more likely to suicide ideate. Where an individual begins suicide ideating they become a high risk for actual suicide completion (Lyon et al., 2000; Nugent &

Williams, 2001; Violanti et al., 2009; Young et al., 1998).

The CMC found that officers were more likely to report a colleague as the severity of the

breach became more obvious. Officers might balance the decision to report an officer for

a breach on the basis of how much that act will produce a loss of mateship. As I have

discussed,’ moral’ breaches may result in little cognitive demand, where an officer is

found to commit a sex act, which is likely to go against the police moral code. The police

mateship network might even congratulate such an act.

On the opposite end of the continuum (minor breaches), for example, where an officer

uses the police system to look up an attractive person’s address, the awareness of this breach may result in different cognitive demands on the officer. Where a breach does not cross the moral threshold, the officer must expend a degree of cognitive energy in trying

to assess what impact reporting will have on their inclusionary rites into the mateship

113 network. If one accepts this ‘balancing theory’, more cognitive energy would be outlaid

in reporting a minor breach, as cost of reporting might be immense, that being the loss of the mateship network. The cognitive demands placed on officers when they observe a breach and realise their reporting obligation and what cost this can have on their support network must be immense, particularly given the findings from this study, where officers who reported less satisfaction with their mateship support network showed significantly higher rates of suicidal thought.

According to Barron (2008), as the case with public service departments, state police departments in Australia are legally mandated to comply with OH&S legislation, where

‘employees must consider the physical and mental health of employees’. As discussed earlier, Barron (2008) argues, if an organisation becomes aware of research findings that indicate that the organisation is in some way contributing to the mental or physical ill health of its employees, then that organisation has a responsibility under OH&S legislation to make efforts to remedy such problems. That being the case, the expectation

might be that if the organisation became aware that it was in some way responsible for

depriving an officer of access to the mateship network and this study suggests that such

an action might lead to suicide ideation, then the organisation would be compelled to

implement certain actions to address such practices.

The findings in this study suggest that efforts to erode or breakdown mateship networks,

in effect, serves to minimise a recognised coping method employed by police and

subsequently results in less satisfaction with the mateship support and an increased

114 likelihood for suicidal ideations. As a result one could expect that the police organisation could quite simply acknowledge such a finding and implement a range of strategies to

promote mateship, given its apparent protective factor against suicidal ideations. Such an

approach might be employed and easily implemented within a ‘pure’ Public Service

Department, where the cost of promoting the protective value of mateship networks does

not come with a history of mateship being associated with police corruption.

Such is the case that arguably occurred post Fitzgerald, certainly ‘officer to officer’

loyalty was seen as one contributing factor to police corruption. More recent internal

investigations have raised the issue of officer to officer loyalty (Dangerous Liason, 2009)

as a contributing factor for police corruption which raised the apparent validity of

Fitzgerald’s original recommendations. At what cost does the Queensland Police Service

place on the reduction of Corruption? Can an effective balance between the health

interests of police members be made with the maintenance and improvement of integrity

of the police organisation? Is decreasing mateship in an effort to increase ‘service’ integrity an acceptable payoff?

As discussed, the QPS currently employs a range of officer support and monitoring

mechanisms to support officers with psychological ill health, which includes registered

Psychologists, Social Workers, Chaplains and Peer Support Officers. The police

psychologist and Social Workers are employed to train and supervise Peer Support

Officers (sworn officers) in the role of supporting colleagues.

115 PSO training is conducted in accordance with the PSO manual that was developed by the

Police Employee Assistance Service in 2003 to provide a standardised training program across the state for all registered PSO’s. Based on the findings of this study, the importance of maintaining mateship links within the organisation is one approach that could potentially operate to reduce suicide ideation amongst officers. The current PSO

manual needs to be revised and recognise the potential link between mateship satisfaction and suicidal ideation, and strategies need to be developed to ensure that PSO’s are connecting with officers that might be at risk of becoming disconnected from the internal support networks.

PTSD and presence of mental illness

Following Belik et al. (2009) and Krysinska and Lester’s (2010) research suggesting a

link between PTSD and suicide, this study aimed to explore the suicide/PSTD association

and assess whether such a link exists amongst officers in the QPS. Based on the results of

the Multiple Regression no significant unique contribution was found between those

officers rating high on the PC-PTSD screen and suicide ideations. Having found that

PTSD made no significant unique contribution to the suicide ideation variable, the results

do not support Belik et al. (2009) and Krysinska and Lester’s (2010) findings. The

prevalence rate of PTSD amongst this policing population was noted, with thirty one

percent of police scoring positive for PTSD using the PC-PTSD screen. Compared to the

prevalence rates outlined in the DSM-IV-TR (1% to 14%) this PTSD rate would appear to be alarming. Coupled with research in relation to PTSD in emergency services and

116 military populations (Mann & Neece, 1990), the prevalence rates amongst Queensland

police might be considered within the typical range for these occupations. In discussing

American police populations, Violanti (2004) reported that police are at a higher risk of

developing PTSD than the general population due to their increased exposure to PTSD.

In line with Violanti’s assertion, the DSM-IV-TR report that emergency service

occupations prevalence rates of PTSD can range up to 58%, however this was not

supported by Martin et al.’s (2009) recent research on Canadian Police, where an 8%

prevalence rate was found.

While PTSD was not found to make a significant unique contribution to the suicide ideation variable, the relationship between suicide and mateship was assessed, following

Stephens and Long’s (1999) research indicating that the two factors might be associated.

Comparing the two factors using Pearson’s correlation co-efficient, a moderate negative correlation was found. Suggesting that as PTSD symptoms increase, a decrease in satisfaction with the mateship network can be found (r = -.334). This finding might suggest that as officers become unwell as a result of PTSD their mateship networks become eroded and possibly less functional in terms of their capacity to provide support.

Obviously this is not a clear cut association, some officers, as a result of their illness may

be restricted from performing operational police duties, and as such are restricted from

entering the workplace, where mateship networks can best be accessed. Officers were

asked if they were currently restricted from full operational duties as a result of a medical condition. Of those officers who rated high on the PTSD screen (n = 63), 28.5% reported

117 that they were restricted from full operational police duties. Of those officers who did not rate on the PTSD screen (n = 137), only six percent reported that they were restricted from full operational duties.

This finding in some respects might actually under report the prevalence of officers

presenting with PTSD and operational restrictions, as many of these officers would be

unlikely to come into contact with the Police Union Journal where the majority of this

research was promoted. The Police Union Journal is typically accessed through contact

with Police Stations and Police establishments, and when an officer is deemed unfit for

duty, they are officially directed not to enter a police establishment, under QPS HR policies. As a result of enforced restriction from a police establishment, most officers deemed unfit for duty would not sight a Police Union Journal. Those officers reporting that they are currently restricted from full operational duties may have been reassigned to desk duties away from their typical place of work enabling them access to a Police Union

Journal.

The operational duties restrictions imposed on those officers rating high with PTSD may

be one reason why these officers report less satisfaction with the mateship network. This

might explain Stephens and Long’s (1999) findings, in that officers who present with

PTSD are more likely to be restricted from operational duties and therefore more likely to

be removed from the workplace in which they connect with the mateship network. As a result, operational restrictions and removal from the workplace, is likely to have an impact on the officers’ reported satisfaction with their mateship network.

118 This has implications as stated above. While PTSD might not be associated with suicide

ideations directly, as this research suggests, there may be an indirect link to suicide

ideations through the action of removing the unwell officers from their mateship

networks. As this research suggests, it is through direct social support from their

mateship networks that an officer appears to be best protected from developing suicide

ideations.

The identified association between PTSD and mateship has implications on how

psychological injury should be managed within the QPS. Injury management officers

(non-sworn administrative staff) are employed to take on the case management

responsibility of officers when they are deemed unfit to perform their operational duties.

These administrative officers (untrained in mental health) are required to work with the

officer’s treating practitioner in an effort to gauge the officers capacity for employment,

how long they will be absent from their substantive duties, what impact the condition will

have on the individual and these admin officers are tasked to provide regular feedback to

the Regional Assistant Commissioners as to when and if the officer will return back to

their place of work.

Based on the findings of this research, officers presenting with PTSD are more likely to

have lower satisfaction with their mateship networks. The QPS could improve the injury management of these officers by ensuring that injury management coordinators manage these officers who are removed from their mateship supports in conjunction with the Peer

119 Support Officers. Given the identified association between suicide ideation, mateship and

PTSD, trained PSO’s would seem to be the most obvious choice when looking at who

might provide the best support for these officers. PSO’s might also be able to provide the

mateship ‘bridge’ back to the organization, while the individual is absent. Where the PSO

identifies suicide ideation they would be able to report this to the regional Human

Services Officer for professional follow-up.

Depression and Anxiety

Another aim of this study was to identify if a relationship existed between the mental

health variables (Depression & Anxiety) and suicide. Based on the results from the

Multiple Regression, Depression made the strongest unique contribution to explaining the dependent variable, when the variance explained by all other variables in the model were controlled (Beta = .243). This result was only slightly stronger than Anxiety (Beta =

.200).

29.9% of officers reported that they had a pre-existing diagnosed mental illness.

This study did not ask officers to report what mental illness they had previously been

diagnosed with, so a full breakdown of reported mental illness is beyond the capacity of

this research. This research did however undertake to screen officers for Anxiety and

Depression. As a result, the prevalence rates of these disorders was assessed in an attempt

to provide some comparison to other police populations, with particular attention drawn

to a recent Norwegian police population using the HADS.

120 While 29.9% of QPS officers reported having pre-existing diagnosed mental illness, using the HADS, 11% of officers met the criteria for Severe Anxiety (cutoff scores

higher than 11), 19% for Moderate Anxiety (cutoff scores higher than 8), 4% for Severe

Depression and 12% for Moderate Depression. Supporting the validity of the HADS as an effective measure of depression and anxiety, Olsson et al. (2005) found that 87% of

Norwegian patients were correctly screened for a major depressive episode using the

HADS, while 76% of patients were correctly assessed as presenting with a Generalized

Anxiety Disorder. After reviewing 747 studies using the HADS screener, Bjelland, Dahl, and Neckelmann (2001) reported that despite its brevity, the HADS exhibited similar sensitivity and specificity as longer versions of General Health Questionnaires. When compared to other questionnaires for anxiety and depression in common use such as BDI,

STAI, CAS, and SCL-90 Anxiety and Depression subscales, the correlation to HADS-D and HADS-A, respectively, were between .60 and .80, which they report should be characterised as medium to strong correlations. The same level of correlations was found when HADS-D was compared to the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale.

Bjelland et al. (2001) concluded that the concurrent validity of HADS is good to very good.

The rate of officers actually screening positive on the HADS for mental distress (46%) is much higher than those reporting with an existing disorder (29.9%). Obviously this does not take into consideration co-morbidity of mental illness, however the mental distress rates found in this study are much higher than that acknowledged by the individuals

121 themselves, suggesting that a significant proportion of office’s are conducting their

operational duties with existing undiagnosed and untreated mental illnesses.

According to the Australian institute of Health and Welfare (2006a), using the Composite

International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), 6% of the general population had experienced depression during the 12 months prior to the survey. According to Lepine, Godchau,

Brun and Teherani (1986), the CIDI’s utility as a diagnostic tool for Major Depressive

Disorder was compared with the HADS and found to have a sensitivity of .74 and a specificity of .77. Compared to the 6% depression rates in the general Australian

population, within the QPS population the HADS screener resulted in 16% of

respondents meeting the criteria for severe and moderate depressive distress. Using the

Center for Epidemiological Depression (CES-D) scale, Violanti et al. (2009) found that

amongst United States Police, a 6.2% prevalence rate of depression could be found,

compared to 2.8% in the general U.S. population. The QPS depression rate of 16% found

within this study is considerably larger than that found amongst U.S. police.

Given that Berg et al. (2006) used the HADS on a Norwegian police population,

comparisons can be made between these findings and the QPS HADS results found in

this study. Berg et al. (2006) reported a total mental distress rate of 24.8% within the

Norwegian police population, compared to 46% amongst the Queensland officers.

Within the Berg et al. (2006) study, Norwegian police presented with a combined

depressive distress rate of 10.4% compared to the general Norwegian population

depression rate of 16.1% (using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25). The QPS rate of

122 depression matched the general Norwegian population (Beiske et al., 2008) at a rate of

16%, however was much higher than that found in the Norwegian police population.

Within the Norwegian police study, 14.4% of officers presented with HADS rating of

anxious distress, compared to a combined QPS rate of 30% anxious distress. Comparative rates of Anxiety averaged across men and women in Australia produced a rate of 9.5%

(ABS, National Health Survey, 1998). Beiske et al. (2008) reported a 10.9% anxiety disorder rate amongst a Norwegian control population study. The results of this study indicate much higher rates of Depression and Anxiety amongst QPS officers, compared to the Norwegian police population and the Australian general population. The implications for higher rates of mental illness amongst the QPS population is concerning given the plethora of studies associating Anxiety and Depressive disorders with suicide and suicide ideation (Bonger, 1991; De Filippo & Overholser, 2000; Goldney et al.,

2000; Kessler et al., 2005; Rudd et al., 1993).

When looking at the mediating effect of social support on depression and anxiety

amongst QPS officers, based on the results of the Pearson product-moment correlation

coefficient, a negative relationship was found (depression, r = -.392, p .0005/Anxiety, r =

.-368, p .0005), suggesting that as an officer’s mental illness increases, their perceived internal social support decreases. This finding supports Schwarzer et al.’s (2004) assertion that the primary social factor hypothesized to mitigate the negative effects of

stress in the work setting is the degree of social support that an individual receives. This

is potentially good news, provided that the organisation promotes mateship networks

123 within the QPS. Given the relative low rates of suicide within the QPS, it could be argued

that the current mateship networks within the QPS are healthy and are working to protect officers against completed suicide. Clearly something is operating to mediate the alarmingly high rate of mental distress within this population, as the completed suicide rate is not consistent with what might be expected within a population with such high rates of depression and anxiety. These high rates, however might explain the inflated suicide attempting rate within the QPS found to be as high as 9.45% within this study, however again some other factor must be operating to ensure that officers are not successful in completing the act.

Again this is an interesting outcome given that officers have immediate access to an array

of weaponry and know how to complete the act of suicide. Something must be operating

to intervene between the suicidal officer and completing the act. This intervening factor

must be immediately accessible, ever present, timely, close by, and effective in stoping

officers completing the act.

The high rates of PTSD amongst the QPS population may also serve to inflate the rates of

Anxiety and Depression found on the HADS.

Relationship issues not a factor

This study aimed to look at marital discord as a potential factor that may contribute to suicide ideation amongst officers in the QPS. Several researchers have explored the

124 relationship between marital stress as a contributing factor to suicide ideation and positive marital support as a protective factor against suicide ideation and completed suicide (Bucca, Ceppi, Peloso, Arcellaschi, & Fele, 1994; Casey et al., 2006; Hulten

&Wasserman, 1992; Kolves, Ide & De Leo, 2010; Kreitman, 1988; Lester, 1987; Qin et al.,

2003; Smith, Mercy, & Conn; 1988).

Although more than one in three officers reported relationship stress (36.6%), the results

of the Multiple Regression, found that relationship stress failed to produce a significant contribution to the suicide ideation equation (beta = .050, p = .458). From the results of the Multiple Regression ‘relationship problems’ also produced no significant contribution

(Beta = -.001, p = .987). This finding did not support Kolves et al. (2010) finding that marital separation was a significant factor associated with suicide ideation.

Violanti et al. (2008) reported that marital discord had little effect on the suicide ideation

rates amongst male officers, however such a relationship was not found amongst female

officers who reported that marital discord was a factor implicated in suicide ideation. The

higher rate of male officers in the QPS might explain why no association was found.

A reason why relationship stress might not be associated with suicide ideation, is that

officers may be more inclined to seek support amongst their police colleagues when

attempting to rationalize or deal with relationship stress. The police mateship network

may operate to buffer the negative consequences of relationship stress. The workplace

125 becomes a safe sanctum where an officer can have a break from relationship stress and

re-charge with the support of colleagues.

The tendency to rely on police networks as a coping mechanism for stress may however serve to exacerbate relationship stress, in that officers may be more inclined to problem

solve and advice seek from their mates, rather than problem solve in partnership with

their relationship partners. While suicide ideation is tempered through police support, this

police support might operate to undermine relationships thereby creating relationship

difficulties. How police mateship operates to impact on police marital and defecto

relationships was not the focus of this study, however might constitute an interesting

study in the future.

Length of Service and Age

Following Belik et al.’s (2009) findings in relation to a dose response effect with PTSD, where the longer an officer served, the more likely they were to present with PTSD, another aim of this study was to see if a similar finding could be reported within the QPS.

No association was found between PTSD and length of service, failing to yield a dose response effect amongst QPS officers.

Based on the Multiple Regression, length of service did not make a unique contribution

to the suicide ideation equation (Beta = .095, p = .137). Whether an officer had served for

twenty years or 12 months, had little bearing on whether an officer would be more prone

126 to suicide ideate. Despite a couple of cited FYC completed suicide cases and the notion that FYC’s may have less internal support, they were not found to present with higher or

lower rates of suicide ideation. While Cantor et al. (1995) reported that 11.73 years was

the average length of service for officer’s that had completed suicide, the line graph

represented in Figure 2. (suicide ideation by length of service) showed a sharp increase in

suicide ideation in the first ten years of service, however appeared to remain stable after

this time. This pattern does not support the hypothesized downward sloping pattern,

suggesting that FYC’s ara at less risk of suicide ideation than longer serving officers.

Following Alte da Beiga and Braz Saraiva’s (2003) use of suicide cluster patterns across

age groups, the QPS suicide ideation clusters across age yielded a convex curve,

reportedly typical of Eastern European countries and typical of Australian patterns (De

Leo et al., 2005; Goldney et al., 2000: Jorg et al.., 1995). The convex curve suggests that suicide ideation will be least likely amongst younger officers, increasing to the 46 to 50 age range and sharply declining to retirement age (Age 60). Officers facing retirement appear to present with the lowest levels of suicide ideation. This pattern does not support the hypothesized downward sloping pattern, suggesting that FYC’s are at less risk of suicide than those in the mid-age range

Cantor et al. (1995) reported an average suicide age within the QPS at 36 years, whereas

this study put the average age at least ten years higher.

Reflection on conducting research in the QPS

127 I was motivated to conduct research within the Queensland Police Service after working

for several years as the Police Psychologist in the Far Northern Region. During this time I

felt that I had accumulated a reasonable degree of corporate knowledge to be able to

attempt a research undertaking within the organization. Rather than opt to research a

topic within the selected topic options offered in the QPS Research Priorities, it was my

choice to research a topic that I felt was worthy of some investigation.

Given that I elected to conduct independent research within the QPS, it was an

expectation that this particular research undertaking might not be entirely supported by the QPS and as such, I would be required to engage in other pathways in an endeavor to effect some research outcomes. In doing so, my aim was to report this experience and offer some advice to other researchers who might be motivated to research independent topics within the QPS.

During my service with the QPS I felt that I had developed a reasonable reputation as a professional officer within the QPS. In 2005 I was selected by the Police Commissioner to represent the QPS with selected other officers at the opening of the National Police

Memorial. I received an Assistant Commissioner’s Certificate for Outstanding leadership during the Lockhart River Air Disaster, a Prime Minister’s Special Commendation for outstanding leadership during the cyclone Larry disaster recovery, and many letters of notable action for my involvement in community riots, including the Arukun, Yarrabah and Palm Island Riots.

128 Prior to making application to conduct this research, I consulted with the Police

Commissioner (Mr Bob Atkinson), the Assistant Commissioner Far Northern Region (Mr

Andy Henderson), Assistant Commissioner Metro North (Mr Peter Barron) and the

Police Union acting president (Mr Dennis Fitzpatrick) and received feedback that such a research undertaking would be worthwhile. At this time I felt enthusiastic about my prospects to be able to conduct this research with the full support of the QPS. I felt that I had sufficient standing within the organization to be trusted to undertake psychological research amongst the police membership, and that due to the belief that I had a positive reputation and good standing with the senior management of the QPS, that as a member of the organization I would be granted privilege to undertake the research. I understood that the QPS had research priorities, but I had worked as a psychologist in the organization, and as a psychologist I was employed to identify areas of concern and use my professional analytical skills to validate those concerns. Therefore, the belief that I had good standing and through my employment as a psychologist, I formed the opinion that my relationship with the organization might provide a foundation through which this research might be supported.

After receiving the research rejection from the QPS and eventually accepting that the research was not going to be supported by the ESC, I received this news with a deep

sense of rejection rather than disappointment. As a researcher, I am fundamentally aware

that research is unsupported for a whole host of reasons, but in this case, I took the

outcome personally. After much discussion and support from my police colleagues and in

129 particular the Commissioner himself, I reflected on my sense of rejection and what this ultimately represented. It wasn’t so much that the research was knocked back that had upset me (although it did), it was a feeling that the ‘group’ didn’t trust me or believe in me. I felt that I had been rejected by my peers and mentors.

Ironically, in one small respect, what I was experiencing was an emotion that I ultimately

aimed to study in this research. I was shocked at how powerful the sense of rejection was

to me and what emotional impact this had on me. My self-esteem fell, my belief in the

organization dropped and I questioned my relationships with my police colleagues.

Whilst in this state of emotional rejection, a police colleague decided that I should start joining him for a morning jog. He arrived each morning and we jogged and talked for an hour before work. The commissioner made a point of ringing and checking on me and I was tasked to work closely with the Assistant Commissioner on a number of projects that

ensured that I would be brought back into the fold. The police organization was

supporting me. The mateship network was providing a support mechanism to my low

mood, and over a couple of months I had recovered and moved the research in the

direction towards the union. Upon reflection I acknowledge how the QPS mateship

network supported me when I was faced with disappointment.

After aligning with the Police Union to research QPS members, I increasingly felt that

my role as a police psychologist was compromising my role as a research psychologist

for the Police Union. At this time I elected to take leave without pay and remove myself

from the organization so that both roles would not conflict. Whilst removed from the

130 organization I began to realize the changed power relationships that I was used to

operating under. As a Doctoral research student, I had no power to affect outcomes on the

QPS, and realized the immense power of the QPS as an outsider. Whilst I could receive

support as an insider, as an outsider I received very little.

Negotiating the official channels of the QPS can be very daunting, despite the fact that I

had served within the QPS for seven years. I was explicit in informing officers that I was

conducting the research as a Doctoral student, not an employee of the QPS. While a

quick phone call to a well positioned mate could typically resolve a query or concerns,

identifying as a student meant that I was to follow official channels and navigate the

organization as a student. The QPS employs senior officers in roles such as Freedom of

Information, QPS solicitors, Media and Public relations and research officers through the

ESC, all employed to work together to potentially serve the best interest of the QPS.

Negotiating these offices as a Doctoral student highlighted the power difference between the individual student and the might of an organization that holds significant power within the community. Psychologically, operating independently against the power of the

QPS as a meager student evoked feelings of fear and isolation. What power did they have to stop me from doing this research? Would some legal loophole identified by the QPS solicitors be found to shut the research down? What was I up against? In an effort to manage my fear, I contemplated giving up on a daily basis, but again I received support from my police mates who remained loyal to me throughout the research.

131 When reflecting on previous researchers who had been successful in researching the

psychological factors associated with QPS officers and other Australian police officers,

one thing became evidently clear, the researchers either had the support of the

organization, as was the case with Cantor et al. (1995) or were former senior officers or a

current serving senior officer as was the case with Barron (2009), Assfalg (2005),

Vincent (1999) and even John. M. Violanti who served as a 23 year veteran of the New

York State Police. I acknowledge that I was not a senior police officer, but a senior

professional officer who had developed positive relationship with all ranks throughout

the QPS and these relationships made it possible for me to complete this research

undertaking.

Without personal knowledge drawn from senior service within the organization or

without the explicit support from the organization, history suggests that few research undertakings are successfully completed within Australian police organizations, where that research intends to study the psychological determinants of police officer health.

If an independent researcher wants to conduct research within the QPS and is not a

serving officer, retired officer, has no internal connections with the police, and is not

commissioned by the police, the probability of successful research outcomes appear to be

most unlikely. Without the support of the police organization, research can be achieved

through the support of the respective police unions, as has been demonstrated by Berg,

Hem, Lau and Ekberg, (2006) and again in this research. I would recommend that future

132 researchers apply through the QPS avenues for research, and in the event that the research is not supported seek direction and support from the Police union.

Conclusion

Drawing from experience as a former police psychologist and from the reported dearth of contemporary suicide research amongst Australian police populations, my aim was to assess the prevalence of suicide ideation amongst this population and factors that potentially contributed to the presence of suicidal thoughts. My first step in this study was to examine the rate of police suicides compared to the general population. After making a number of enquiries through the Police Union, I was to identify that no statistical record was kept in relation to police suicide, and that a gap in knowledge existed between 1992 to present. This lack of information in relation to QPS suicide and suicide ideation led me to seek unofficial information from long serving members of the

QPS as a means to draw from their corporate knowledge and gain some measure of the numbers of officers that had completed suicide within the QPS. Based on these

‘unofficial’ reports, I was pleased to find that the apparent suicide rate within the QPS was considerably lower than that found in the general population (7/100,000, compared to 12.8/100,000). This may have accounted for why no official record was kept of suicide rates within the QPS. Perhaps it was felt that suicide only occurred occasionally and therefore did not receive attention enough to warrant a dedicated file.

133 The results from this study indicated that officers who report a history of suicide ideation were comparative with the general population with 3.5% of officers presenting with lifetime prevalence. High rates of spontaneous suicidal thoughts were found, where nearly one in three officers reported that they sometimes thought about suicide. These are interesting findings, in that the police population is deemed to be a healthy population

(Violanti et al., 2009), where individuals with major psychiatric conditions have been screened and excluded from entry. More alarming was the finding that a history of attempted suicides were considerably higher amongst the QPS population (1 in 10.5) compared to the general population of one in 307 (Pirkis et al.’s, 2000). As a healthy population, it would be expected that the police population would have lower rates of suicide ideation and suicide attempts, compared to the general population, however this was not found.

One explanation for this high rate of suicide attempts might be that this study did not

differentiate between suicide attempt and para-suicide behavior. The difference being that para-suicide behavior, while consistent with a suicide attempt, occurs without intent to end one’s life, as opposed to actual suicide attempt, where the individual intends to kill themselves (Welsh, 2001). More research needs to occur in relation to this high attempted suicide rate, with particular attention placed on identifying and separating para-suicide behavior and suicide attempts. Given the ever present access to lethal means and exposure to completed suicides, officers may be more likely to present with para-suicidal behavior. This needs to be explored!

134 In an effort to gain some understanding of the factors contributing to officer suicide

ideation, I drew from the research conducted by Cantor et al. (1995) and first looked at

whether a relationship existed between suicide ideation and disciplinary matters. Cantor

et al. (1995) reported that up to 75% of completed suicides prior to 1992 within the QPS

occurred within a close timed proximity to a disciplinary matter.

The findings from this study did not find an association between disciplinary matters and suicide. One explanation for this limited association was discussed in terms of how

different breaches of discipline can be viewed differently by the in-group and therefore

impacts on how the officer will be treated by their mates. The difference between a Moral

vs Noble offence can potentially have a significant impact on how the in-group will react

to an officer under investigation and how these individuals will be supported. It was

proposed in this study that an officer who is subject to a moral offence such as a sex

offence will be treated differently by his or her colleagues than an officer charged with

fabricating evidence against a child sex offender. A major limitation of this study was

that the nature of the disciplinary matters was not detailed and that an evaluation between

Noble and Moral offences could not be made. Future research into the impact of

disciplinary issues, must consider the separation of the discipline types.

To assess the primary aim of this study, the relationship between mateship and suicide

ideation was explored in an effort to identify if perceived support from the in-group was

associated with suicidal thoughts as demonstrated in other research findings (Andrews,

1984; Heikkinen, Aro & Lonnqvist, 1993; Lennings, 1995). When compared across a

135 range of potential contributing factors, it was found that mateship made a significant

unique contribution to the equation, and that this factor operated to affect an influence on

suicidal thought. Where an officer perceived less mateship, they were more likely to present with suicide ideations, whereas officers with higher perceived mateship appeared to be protected against suicide ideation. The importance of the mateship network as a protective factor against suicide ideation was identified in this study. After 20 years of institutional change, mateship is still an important social quality within the QPS.

While mateship was found to produce a significant effect on suicide ideation, other

factors traditionally associated with completed suicide and suicide ideation, such as being

a Whistleblower (Grace & Cohen,1998), Length of Service (Cantors et al., 1995), PTSD

(Krysinska & Lester, 2010), medical ill health (Ruzicka, Choi & Sadkowsky, 2005) and relationship problems (Kolves, Ide & De Leo, 2010) were not found to produce a significant effect on suicide ideation amongst officers. Depression and Anxiety were the only other factors to have a significant effect on suicide ideation, where just under half of

the officers presented with mental distress. The reported association between

anxiety/depression and suicide ideation has been widely reported and therefore is not an

altogether unsurprising finding (Chen et al.., 2009; Violanti et al.., 2009). High rates of

emotional distress have been found in other policing populations (Hem et al., 2001). The

belief that police are an altogether healthy population, immune to psychological distress

is however an inaccurate perception according to the findings in this research.

136 Understanding the role that mateship and emotional distress plays within the QPS might explain the disparity between high rates of suicide attempts, yet low rates of completed suicides. Given police officer’s access to lethal means and their knowledge of how to

complete the suicidal acts, it is apparent that some other factor operates to intercept

between attempting to put a plan into action and completed suicides (as evidenced by the

low suicide rate).

Whatever it is that operates within the QPS to interject between attempting suicide and

completing suicide, must be readily available, ever present and immediate. By the nature of police work, officers generally share the same work environment; closely work together in patrol cars or walk together on the beat, immediate back up is a fundamental

requirement of most police environments and relationships are cemented through a

requirement to work together for long periods of time and often in adverse conditions.

Through police work, officers become loyal to each other, and this loyalty arguably

creates mateship. By virtue of the fact that officers work closely with their mates, it is this

connectivity that I would argue serves to interject at the moment that an officer makes the

irrational decision to problem solve through suicide.

Why suicide ideation is not detected amongst their mates prior to the attempt, might be

explained by the police culture and training of emotions regulation (Berking et al.. 2010), being tough and strong in front of your mates and controlling your emotion during critical incidents. It might be the case that officers hide or regulate their emotional distress and

suppress their mental sufferance until their emotional distress reaches a point of catharsis

137 and manifests through suicide attempt. This cathartic phase, or ‘dysfunctional method of short-term emotion regulation’ (as described by Berking et al., 2010) might be what Rudd

(2004) referred to as the ‘suicidal mode’, describing this phase as acute (i.e., time- limited) in nature and characterized by autonomic activation and arousal. Perhaps, it is at this point (the suicidal mode) that the officer’s emotional distress, found to occur in nearly half of the officers, becomes overtly obvious and his or her mates are able to respond with support. Perhaps it is this relationship that serves to create the disparity between high attempt rates, yet low completed rates.

A recent study by Jha et al. (2010) within a military population found positive results

using Mindfulness Training, in an effort to teach soldiers to become more aware of their

emotions and improve their functional capacities. Mindfulness training might be useful in

training police officers how to identify their emotion states and learn to be able to

communicate these states amongst their peers, particularly the peer support network. MT

might operate to reduce the tendency of police officers to overuse the trained emotion

regulation techniques that operates to suppress typical emotion states. MT might allow

officers to identify their emotions and process these emotions before they lead to severe

suicide ideation and suicide attempt. Research using MT within the QPS population

might be a good starting point at looking at ways to improve the high rates of suicide

attempt and suicide ideation. In order to enhance the likelihood that officers will consider

MT, Peer Support Officers (rather than trained professionals) could be trained and

encouraged to deliver MT in-services within their workplaces and stations. Based on the

138 findings from this study and previous research, officers would be more likely to take on a

message, when that message is delivered by a peer (a mate).

While I have argued that the high rates of emotional distress amongst the police population support the notion of a suicide continuum within the QPS, Wyder and De Leo

(2007) found in a general Australian population study that up to a quarter of suicide attempts were found to have no prior planning, the suicidal process was fluctuating and individuals described their attempt as impulsive. Based on Wylder and De Leo (2007), rather than a process of emotion regulation, officers might be just as likely to present with impulsive traits, rather than possessing emotional distress and having a trained capacity to hide it. These researchers brought into question the traditional ‘continuum’ model of suicide, where suicide is typically associated with a buildup in emotional distress, leading to suicide ideation and ultimately suicide attempt. The ‘continuum’ model has also been questioned by De Leo et al. (2005), demonstrating that this model was relatively rare in the Australian population studied, therefore officers may be more impulsive, rather than building up to a suicidal crescendo.

As a result of police recruit screening, ‘fitness-for-duty’ evaluations screen officers for

impulsive traits (Decker, 2006; Miller, 2009). Eber (1991) and Lorr and Strack (1994)

report that police screening typically produces police candidates who are highly

controlled, low in anxiety, strongly tough-minded, and slightly independent. In keeping

with other studies suggesting the presence of a ‘police personality’ (Evans et al., 1992;

Rokeach et al., 1971; Skolnick, 1994; Twersky-Glasner, 2005; Vastola 1978),

139 Abrahamsen and Strype (2010) found that police officer personality significantly differed

to that of the general population, with typical profiles emphasising certain personality characteristics. These characteristics included significantly more conscientious, they were considerably more agreeable and emotionally stable, when compared with the reference group. The idea that police suicide attempt might be the result of impulsivity as proposed by Wylder and De Leo (2007) would be unlikely given the ‘police personality’.

One of the fundamental differences of the police population is their higher rate of

exposure to traumatic events, thereby making them more susceptible to psychological conditions such as PTSD and Acute Stress Disorder (Belik et al., 2009; Krysinska and

Lester, 2010; Martin et al., 2009; Violanti, 2004). According to the results of this study,

31% of officers met the criteria for PTSD using the PTSD screen. While PTSD was not found in this study to have an impact on suicide ideations, it was found to have a significant moderate association with mateship (r = -.334). Given the high rate of PTSD within the QPS efforts must be sought to explore strategies to treat the symptoms associated with this condition, particularly within the workplace. In the same way that mateship operates to protect against suicide, mateship networks also need to be employed to treat this condition. PSO’s need to receive ongoing education in relation to the treatment of PTSD and health promotion initiatives designed and delivered by police with the assistance of HSO’s and other trained professionals. If officers perceive that this message is coming from their colleagues, they are potentially more likely to ingest the information. Where it comes from an outsider, these messages are likely to have less chance of being inculcated into the police culture.

140 While suicide is measured in terms of lives lost, the cost of suicide ideation comes at the

expense of cognitive and emotional clarity. Officers are employed to respond to critical

incidents, negotiate complex issues, make snap life and death decisions, and effect

positive outcomes on the community. Serving as an effective police officer requires

significant emotional and intellectual focus. Where an officer begins suicide ideating, this

cognitive process impairs usual thought processing, and typical levels of intellectual

capacities are more likely to decline as a result of mental distress. The rate in which

officers present with mental distress is alarming and this is likely to have an effect on

police effectiveness. The consequences of high rates of mental distress amongst a police

population might be evidenced by high rates of community complaints, higher rates of

absenteeism through sick leave, and a reduced capacity to engage the community.

The personal cost of suicide ideation amongst officers is immense, potentially resulting in poorer quality of life, reduced morale and job satisfaction, poor mental and physical health and a reduction in interpersonal relationships. On the positive side however this

study found that mateship protects against suicide ideation. While I have found that

Depression and Anxiety contribute to suicide ideation, ‘mateship’ operates to protect

officers against mental ill health and suicide ideation.

On some level the QPS recognises the value of mateship, particularly given the organisations commitment to the PSO program and Supportive Leadership Training, social clubs, police sporting teams, and charity events. On another level, the QPS has to

141 be more aware of officers who are not positioned to access these support networks, such as officers who are exempt from the workplace for medical ill health, stationed in remote and isolated stations, and officers who have been transferred to new work environments.

This research will assist Police psychologists in understanding that the Police ‘mateship’

networks serve as an enabling and protective factor in Police suicides, Depression and

Anxiety.

Conducting independent research within the QPS without support from the organisation is a very emotionally demanding and difficult task. In an effort to set up research within

the QPS, considerable time is lost in attempting to communicate with the organisation.

The time frame between submitting a research application and receiving feedback takes

many months, and such time lags either rule out the time frames required for research

deadlines within Doctoral and Masters Studies or operate to tax the motivational reserves

of the researcher. As the time frame extends, I found that I became consumed by the

thought of abandoning the study and focusing on something else, not within the QPS. It

was the belief in the issue and the support of operational police officers that made me

stay my course. I acknowledge that I was in a privileged position to research the QPS as I

came with intimate personal knowledge of the organisation, a factor that most other

researchers will not have. In the absence of this support, I would encourage future

researchers to draw heavily on the support of the Queensland Police Union. I found that

the QPUE listened to my proposal and challenged me to consider other aspects and factors that I had not considered. With the support of the Union, researchers will find an

142 advocate and consultant who will assist the researcher with navigating the organisation

and educate in relation to specific knowledge areas pertaining to the organisation.

Ongoing research in relation to police suicide needs to occur and ‘official’ rates of

completed suicides need to be examined. An investigation of police deaths through an

examination of coronial files and death certificates might be one approach that would

elicit more information; however this would need to be done in conjunction with interviews with former work colleagues to provide more information to assist in identifying potential contributing factors that led these officers to end their lives.

The QPS or an academic institution like the Griffith University ‘Australian Institute for

Suicide Research and Prevention’ need to implement a QPS suicide register, so that all

police suicides can be monitored to assess for potential contributing factors and allow for

the creation of a body of knowledge that may assist in the prevention of further deaths.

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172 Appendix A. QPUE Journal article.

Re: 15 -20 minute police suicide survey

With the support of the QPUE, I am currently undertaking Doctoral research into Queensland police officers psychological health, particularly issues concerning factors that might lead an officer to consider taking their own life.

If you are a member of the Queensland Police Union and are interested in completing this survey, please enter the following URL into your computer to access and complete the survey. http://tinyurl.com/acl99v

Survey results will be published in the QPUE journal and be used to inform the union in relation to potential at-risk groups amongst its membership.

Your support in this research is most appreciated.

Regards, Timothy J White James Cook University Doctoral Candidate School of Psychology.

173 Appendix B: ‘Facebook’ research promotion.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=5311709321&ref=ts

Hi all, I'm currently doing some research on suicide within the QPS. I wrote a couple of articles in the QPUE journal this year about the importance of this issue.

Below is a link to the survey and will explain what the research is about.

I would really appreciate your completing the survey.

http://tinyurl.com/acl99v

Regards Tim White

174 Appendix C: Research Survey

/w EWDgKjvsrKDg /w EPDw ULLTE0M Police Mateship Survey Exit this survey

1. Information page

All Queensland Police Union of Employees members are invited to complete a questionnaire pertaining to their social networks and their thoughts and feelings about life. Some questions will ask you about your perceptions regarding the support you receive from your friends, while other questions concern your feelings, including thoughts of self harm or suicide. Some questions will also be asked about your employment history.

This research is focused on exploring wider social issues and trends across the Union membership, with the view to using this information to develop current supportive leadership practices and is not aimed at examining any particular individual’s responses. You will be notified at the completion of this research as to the findings and encouraged to provide feedback to assist in the interpretation of these outcomes.

The questionnaire will be accessed and completed on-line, rather than through your email account so as to protect your personal identity and maintain confidentiality. You will not be required to provide your name or identifying particulars at any point during the survey. Your individual responses will not become known to your employer or supervisor, given that your completed survey cannot be traced back to your logon details or email account.

You may withdraw from this research at anytime, as participation is voluntary. Your participation should take no more than 20 minutes and you can only complete the questionnaire once.

This research is conducted through the School of Psychology Department, James Cook University, with permission from the Queensland Police Union Executive. This research forms part of the requirement for the completion of a Clinical Doctorate in Psychology.

175 If you have any questions in relation to your participation or the execution of this study, please forward them to Mr Timothy White (Principal investigator) at [email protected], Dr Marie Caltabiano (Supervisor) on 0740421183, or Dennis Fitzpatrick (QPUE Executive).

If participants feel distress for any reason they should contact the office administrator of the QPS employee assistance service (phone: 3364 6947) and seek a referral to speak to a Human Services Officer.

Where participants in this research have any questions regarding the ethical conduct of the research project, they may contact the James Cook University Human Ethics Committee (Tina Langford, 07 47815521) or Email: [email protected].

Thank you for participating in this research study. Next

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2. Consent declaration

I have read the information pertaining to this study, and consent to the conditions of this research. I understand what is required of me in completing this questionnaire.

I understand that any information I give will be kept strictly confidential and that no names will be used to identify me with this study.

I understand that I can withdraw my consent to this research by clicking the exit button at the top right of my screen.

Prev Next

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176 /w EWDw KjvsrKD /w EPDw ULLTE0M Police Mateship Survey Exit this survey

3. Default Section

*

1. My current rank is :

My current rank is : First year Constable Constable Senior Constable Sergeant Senior Sergeant *

2. My current length of Service within the QPS is:

My current length of Service within the QPS is: One year Between 1 and 5 years Between 5 and 10 years Between 10 and 15 years Between 15 and 20 years More than 20 years *

3. I have been diagnosed as having a mental or psychological disorder.

I have been diagnosed as having a mental or psychological disorder. yes no *

177 4. I currently have a medical condition that restricts my full operational employment.

I currently have a medical condition that restricts my full operational employment. yes no *

5. I am currently ……… years old.

I am currently ……… years old. 21 - 25 26 - 30 31 - 35 36 - 40 41 - 45 46 - 50 51 - 55 56 - 60 *

6. I am currently subject to a Queensland Police Service disciplinary proceeding, for which I am being investigated.

I am currently subject to a Queensland Police Service disciplinary proceeding, for which I am being investigated. yes no

7. If answering yes to the previous question, possible disciplinary outcomes may include,

If answering yes to the previous question, possible disciplinary outcomes may include, Not applicable Reprimand, correction by guidance Possible loss of rank Possible loss of employment

8. If subject to a disciplinary matter, how long since you became aware of this investigation.

178 If subject to a disciplinary matter, how long since you became aware of this investigation. Not applicable 1 week 1 month 3 months 6 months 12 or more months *

9. I have generated a complaint against a police officer, for which I am currently protected under the whistle blowers act.

I have generated a complaint against a police officer, for which I am currently protected under the whistle blowers act. yes no *

10. I am currently experiencing relationship difficulties with my significant other.

I am currently experiencing relationship difficulties with my significant other. yes no

11. My relationship difficulty with my significant other causes me stress.

My relationship difficulty with my significant other causes me stress. Not relevant Very high stress high stress no stress little stress no stress *

12. I feel tense or 'wound up'.

I feel tense or 'wound up'. Most of the time

179 A lot of the time. From time to time, occasionally Not at all. *

13. I still enjoy the things I used to enjoy.

I still enjoy the things I used to enjoy. Definitely as much Not quite so much Only a little Hardly at all. *

14. I get a sort of frightened feeling as if something awful is about to happen.

I get a sort of frightened feeling as if something awful is about to happen. Very definitely and quite badly Yes, But not too badly A little, but it doesn't worry me Not at all. *

15. I can laugh and see the funny side of things.

I can laugh and see the funny side of things. As much as I always could Not quite so much now Definitely not so much now Not at all. *

16. Worrying thoughts go through my mind.

Worrying thoughts go through my mind. A great deal of the time. A lot of the time. From time to time, but not too often.

180 Only occasionally *

17. I feel cheerful.

I feel cheerful. Not at all. Not often. Sometimes. Most of the time. *

18. I can sit at ease and feel relaxed.

I can sit at ease and feel relaxed. Definitely Usually Not often Not at all *

19. I feel as if I am slowed down.

I feel as if I am slowed down. Nearly all the time Very often Sometimes Not at all. *

20. I get a sort of frightened feeling like 'butterflies' in the stomach.

I get a sort of frightened feeling like 'butterflies' in the stomach. Not at all Occasionally Quite often Very often *

21. I have lost interest in my appearance.

181 I have lost interest in my appearance. Definitely I don't take as much care as I should I may not take quite as much care I take just as much care as ever. *

22. I feel restless as if I have to be on the move.

I feel restless as if I have to be on the move. Very much indeed Quite a lot Not very much Not at all. *

23. I look forward with enjoyment to things.

I look forward with enjoyment to things. As much as I ever did Rather less than I used to Definitely less than I used to Hardly at all. *

24. I get sudden feelings of panic.

I get sudden feelings of panic. Very often indeed Quite often Not very often Not at all *

25. I can enjoy a good book or radio or TV program.

I can enjoy a good book or radio or TV program. Often Sometimes Not often Very selfdom

182 *

26. In your life, have you ever had any experience that was so frightening, horrible, or upsetting that, in the past month, you have had nightmares about it or thought about it when you did not want to?

In your life, have you ever had any experience that was so frightening, horrible, or upsetting that, in the past month, you have had nightmares about it or thought about it when you did not want to? yes no *

27. In your life, have you ever had any experience that was so frightening, horrible, or upsetting that, in the past month, you tried hard not to think about it or went out of your way to avoid situations that reminded you of it?

In your life, have you ever had any experience that was so frightening, horrible, or upsetting that, in the past month, you tried hard not to think about it or went out of your way to avoid situations that reminded you of it? yes no *

28. In your life, have you ever had any experience that was so frightening, horrible, or upsetting that, in the past month, you were constantly on guard, watchful, or easily startled?

In your life, have you ever had any experience that was so frightening, horrible, or upsetting that, in the past month, you were constantly on guard, watchful, or easily startled? yes no *

29. In your life, have you ever had any experience that was so frightening, horrible, or upsetting that, in the past month, you felt numb or detached from others, activities, or your surroundings?

In your life, have you ever had any experience that was so frightening, horrible, or upsetting that, in the past month, you felt numb or detached from others, activities, or your surroundings? yes no *

183 30. have you ever previously attempted suicide

have you ever previously attempted suicide yes no *

31. Have you ever felt that life was not worth living?

Have you ever felt that life was not worth living? Never Almost never Sometimes Almost always Always *

32. Have you ever wished you were dead?

Have you ever wished you were dead? Never Almost never Sometimes Almost always Always *

33. Have you ever thought of taking your own life even if you would not really do it?

Have you ever thought of taking your own life even if you would not really do it? Never Almost never Sometimes Almost always Always *

34. Have you ever reached the point where you seriously considered taking your life, or perhaps made plans how you would go about doing it?

184 Have you ever reached the point where you seriously considered taking your life, or perhaps made plans how you would go about doing it? Never Almost never Sometimes Almost always Always Prev Next

The following questions asks about your police workmates who provide you with help or support. Each question has two parts. For the first part, list the number of police colleagues you know, excluding yourself, whom you can count on for help or support in the manner described. List up to 9 colleagues.

For the second part, rate how satisfied you are with the overall support you have.

If you have no support for a question, check the words, "No one", but still rate your level of satisfaction. *

1. How many of your work mates can you really count on to listen to you when you need to talk?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

185 *

2. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

3. How many of your work mates could you really count on to help you if a person whom you thought was a good friend insulted you and told you that he/she didn't want to see you again?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

4. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied

186 Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

5. How many of your work mates lives do you feel that you are an important part of?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

6. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied

*

7. How many of your work mates do you feel would help you if you were married and had just separated from your spouse?

No one

187 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

8. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

9. How many of your work mates could you really count on to help you out in a crisis situation, even though they would have to go out of their way to do so?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

188 9 *

10. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

11. How many of your work mates can you talk with frankly, without having to watch what you say?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

12. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied

189 Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

13. How many of your work mates help you feel that you truly have something positive to contribute to others?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

14. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

15. How many of your work mates can you really count on to distract you from your worries when you feel under stress?

No one 1 2

190 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

16. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

17. How many of your work mates can you really count on to be dependable when you need help?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

191 18. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

19. How many of your work mates could you really count on to help you out if you had just been fired from your job?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

20. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied

192 *

21. How many of your work mates can you totally be yourself with?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

22. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

23. How many of your work mates do you feel really appreciates you as a person?

No one 1 2 3 4

193 5 6 7 8 9 *

24. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

25. How many of your work mates can you really count on to give you useful suggestions that help you to avoid making mistakes?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

26. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

194 Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

27. How many of your work mates can you count on to listen openly and uncritically to your innermost feelings?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

28. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

195 29. How many of your work mates would comfort you if you needed it by putting their arm around you?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

30. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

31. How many of your work mates do you feel would help if a good friend of yours had been in a car accident and was hospitalised in a serious condition?

No one 1 2 3 4 5

196 6 7 8 9

*

32. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

33. How many of your work mates can you really count on to help you feel more relaxed when you are under pressure or tense?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

34. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

197 Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

35. How many of your work mates do you feel would help if a family member very close to you died?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

36. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

198 37. How many of your work mates accepts you totally, including both your worst and your best points?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

38. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

39. How many of your work mates can you really count on to care about you, regardless of what is happening to you?

No one 1 2 3 4 5

199 6 7 8 9 *

40. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

41. How many of your work mates can you really count on to listen to you when you are very angry at someone else?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

42. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied

200 Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied

*

43. How many of your work mates can you really count on to tell you, in a thoughtful, manner, when you need to improve in some way?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

44. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

45. How many of your work mates can you really count on to help you feel better when you are feeling generally down-in-the-dumps?

201 No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

46. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

47. How many of your work mates do you feel truly loves you deeply?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

202 9 *

48. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

49. How many of your work mates can you count on to console you when you are very upset?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

50. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied

203 Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied

*

51. How many of your work mates can you really count on to support you in major decisions you make?

No one 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 *

52. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied *

53. How many of your work mates can you really count on to help you feel better when you are very irritable, ready to get angry at almost anything?

No one 1

204 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

*

54. With regards to your response to the previous question, how satisfied are you with the overall support that you have?

Very satisfied Fairly satisfied A little satisfied A little dissatisfied Fairly dissatisfied Very dissatisfied

5. Psychological support

If you in any way are experiencing feelings of depressed mood, hopelessness, or worthlessness, or just want to discuss personal issues with someone confidential, support can be found by contacting the QPS employee assistance service on 33643756. Thank you for completing this survey. X1gpODv_2frgHr ApDhN0bTqU1pA 5jvunDLfBm28Dm VW6Yh2TOSWX

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