Suicide by Cop

The term suicide by cop (SbC), as used in law enforcement and the media, is a form of occupational shorthand describing a phenomenon wherein a subject intentionally provokes an officer into using deadly force with the purpose of causing the subject's death. These types of incidents can be preplanned by the subject or, in some cases, may be a spontaneous act of a desperate person.

As a generalization, an SbC incident involves a subject who uses the anticipated response of a law enforcement officer as a mechanism, vis-à-vis the use of deadly force, to commit suicide. Similar terminology used to categorize an SbC incident includes suicide by police, police-assisted suicide, and victim-precipitated homicide. However, the use of these terms interchangeably is problematic in that they may be misleading. The term suicide by police may be mistaken for an incident involving an officer who commits suicide. Use of the term police-assisted suicide is not intended to infer that the police are willing participants considering the provocation involved in an SbC incident. Finally, victim-precipitated homicide is intended to categorize incidents of homicide wherein the victim is believed to have contributed to the circumstances leading up to and causing his or her death. An SbC incident would fit these criteria to some extent. However, not all incidents of homicide precipitated by the victim would fit the criteria of SbC.

The mechanics of an SbC incident would most likely involve a subject using an instrument of some [Page 446]sort—a firearm, an edged weapon, imitation or nonfunctioning weapons, or other device—in such a way that threatens an officer or a third party in the presence of an officer, and the officer resorts to the use of deadly force to neutralize the threat. The threat of force by the subject is intentional and provoking in the majority of cases. The object of the subject is to have the officer cause a desired outcome—death—which the subject is not willing to complete.

Studies that have analyzed a vast number of SbC incidents in the United States and Canada have identified some common variables among the subjects who precipitate the violence. Many of the SbC incidents are preceded by domestic violence incidents; substance and alcohol abuse by subjects are common; and subjects may suffer from some form of mental or physical illness. The vast majority of subjects are male, ranging in age from their late teens to middle age, and firearms and edged weapons are the primary choices of instrument by the subjects. Many of these studies have also revealed that the officer involved in an SbC incident may manifest symptoms of posttraumatic stress that can be intensified by the fact that the officer was provoked by the subject, the weapon was not real, and/or that the officer was not in control of the incident.

An SbC incident is very complex, often precipitated by a series of events involving the suicidal subject. Not all subjects will broadcast their intentions, and an officer may be confronted with an SbC subject and forced to react without consideration of less-lethal options. Although an SbC subject may let his or her feelings about death be known, it may well be done in such a way as to leave an officer no option but to resort to the use of lethal force based on the threat from the subject. The threat may be as overt as firing or pointing a firearm at the officer, or as subtle as slowly raising a hand holding a firearm. Either way, the officer may be forced to make a split-second decision to use deadly force.

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