NYPD Cops To Get Peer Counseling Amid Spate Of Suicides

NEW YORK — The NYPD wants to make sure police officers can turn to each other for help amid a spate of cop suicides. The Police Department plans to launch a peer counseling program later this year in an effort to improve cops' access to mental-health resources, NYPD brass said Monday.

It's part of what First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker called a "holistic and comprehensive strategy" to support cops' mental, emotional and physical health that the NYPD is rolling out after half a dozen cops took their own lives in as many months.

"The goal here is to be as resilient as we can possibly be to provide the services to these officers, even when they don’t think they need them, perhaps, or even when they recognize that they need them but they may be reluctant to take advantage of it," Tucker said at a news conference Monday.

The peer-counseling program will recruit officers who will be trained to listen to colleagues who are going through a tough time and give them help or referrals, according to Tucker.

Once they receive the training, which will likely begin in early September, the volunteer cop counselors will work alongside the NYPD's psychologists and other professionals connected with ThriveNYC, the city's expansive mental-health initiative, Tucker said.

Tucker said the peer counselors "will be in effect a force multiplier to our existing support programs" provided by the Police Department's Employee Assistance Unit, its Employee Relations office and the Police Organization Providing Peer Assistance, a nonprofit that also provides cop-on-cop support.

Additionally, the NYPD will give a three-hour training course to about 800 executive personnel — including the commanding officers of all 77 precincts — on suicide prevention and other mental-health issues, according to Tucker.

The new initiatives follow the suicide deaths of six police officers since the start of this year, according to city officials. Four of those cops reportedly took their own lives in the month of June alone, starting with Deputy Chief Steven Silks, who died in Queens on June 5.

While Tucker said there were no common threads linking those deaths, NYPD brass said they are working to combat the stigma that many cops worry about when they are struggling with the stresses of their dangerous job or their personal lives.

"You’re talking about a livelihood — if I step forward, am I going to lose my guns, am I going to lose my shield, am I going to lose my job?" Police Commissioner James O'Neill said. "And that’s something that maybe in other professions you don’t have to consider."

O'Neill emphasized that cops do not have to go through the NYPD to find help. ThriveNYC will work to make sure officers know about resources that are available both within and outside of the department, said Susan Herman, the director of the Office of ThriveNYC.

"We are working with other agencies in the city to make sure that officers can access these resources quickly and get what they need and make sure that officers know about them," said Herman, a former NYPD deputy commissioner.

Anyone struggling with mental health can get help by calling National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or visiting this website. New Yorkers can also find resources by calling 1-888-NYC-WELL.