DALLAS — Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia, just two days after one of his officers died by suicide, is urging his officers to fight the stigma of asking for help and to fight for each other when it comes to mental health.
"One of the reasons I think this is so important," he said, "you know, when I started in 1992, if I saw a traumatic incident, if I turned to my partner in '92 and I told my partner, 'Hey, that call kind of screwed me up,' my partner would have looked at me and said, 'Dude, you got to suck it up. We got ten more hours.' If I would have said those same words to a lieutenant, that lieutenant would have looked at me in 1992 and said to me, 'Maybe this isn't the right job for you.'"
"And the reason why this is so important (is) because that cannot happen anymore. There is no human being that needs to see what these officers see without going and asking for help and having someone speak to them if they're having issues," the chief said.
Garcia said despite conversations with the family of officer Matthew Bacon and conversations with his fellow officers, he still doesn't know why the officer chose to take his life on Tuesday.
Bacon's death happened one day after he was involved in a U.S. North Texas Fugitive Task Force apprehension of a violent suspect in the 3700 block of South Tyler Street. Bacon was one of four officers who opened fire. The suspect, Corey Wayne Thomas, was killed.
But, Garcia knows that officer suicides are rampant, far outnumbering line of duty deaths. On average, more than 150 police officers in the U.S. die by their own hand every year. In statistics compiled by the first responder suicide-prevention group BlueHelp, 160 police officers took their own lives last year in the U.S.
More than 50 suicides have been recorded so far this year.
"The leading cause of death of the American police officer is suicide. The leading cause of death is by our officers' own hands," said Garcia. "So this is not just a Dallas thing. This is a national thing. Yes, we had a tragedy. But we have to be better. We have to be more proactive. We have to ensure that we can continue to normalize the trauma that our officers feel when they ask for help."
"We need to ensure that we have all the resources that are available for them. And there's a lot of people willing to help that are available for our officers to stay healthy and mentally fit for their officer safety, which is not simply being safe from a bullet or a knife or a fight out the street," the chief added.
The Dallas Police Department started a wellness unit 14 months ago for these very same reasons. Garcia wants his officers to take advantage of that program, and an alcohol rehabilitation program too, if needed, without fear of the stigma of harming their careers. He wants the exact opposite to be the expectation.
"You show me an officer who's mentally fit who has asked for help and is mentally fit, and I will show you a fantastic officer. It comes down to officer safety, right?" Garcia said. "We have to really start melding them together. That the same officer safety that we preach to our officers out in the field with regards to dealing with violent suspects and protecting each other and risking our lives for each other, has to mean the same thing in looking after each other with their mental well-being."
"Ultimately, in the end, I just plead with any police officer, if they're going through trauma to reach out for help. Help is there," the chief said. "I want our officers well and healthy so they can live long for their families. And that's the most important thing."