What's going on with San Antonio PD? Jordan Hammond becomes 5th cop to take his own life in 7 months
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS: A Texas police officer committed suicide in early October, making it the fifth suicide in the police department in just seven months by an officer or a retired officer. Experts have now weighed in and blamed the several struggles that a police officer deals with especially amidst the defunding of the force and the demonization of the officers. A spokesperson has confirmed that four of the five deaths were active-duty officers and the fifth was an officer who retired two weeks before his death.
A five-year veteran of the force, San Antonio Police Officer Jordan Hammond, died at 30 last week as reported by KENS-TV. A trauma therapist from Austin, Texas, Tania Glenn, told Fox News Digital that the demonization by the media and politicians has resulted in crushed morale in law enforcement officials. Glenn said, "They have a really big city with a lot of violence, and they have been dealing with the media portrayals of law enforcement folks as demons. And they have sort of been cut off from society and engaging in making people happy with 'coffee with a cop' and things like that. All these things have really come to a screeching halt between the pandemic and what happened after George Floyd. So, they're isolated. Their mental health is suffering, the trauma is compounding, and it's just this perfect storm for what's happening there."
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Glenn continued, "You look at how many law enforcement wives were taking the Thin Blue Line stickers off their cars because they didn't want to be hunted down or harassed or have their cars keyed, and just listening in [to] some of those Facebook groups, the dialog and the chat of even the family members, it's just a massive, massive accumulation of stress that's impacting the mental health of all the officers and their families."
The therapist continued highlighting the effect on the mental health of officers after officials from across the country were supporting anti-police protestors. She continued, "When there’s no one there to support you and no one really has your back other than fellow officers, then they say, ‘Why do I do this? And why do I keep going?' And simultaneously to all of that, I think all of that, if their mental health is starting to suffer and their serotonin levels are off, and they don't see life in terms of the big picture that if we move through this process, things may get better, or I can explore other options in my life." She continued, "It comes down to the fact that all they see is that suicide is the only option and their brain and depression does this awful thing. It really tricks you into believing that people will be better off without you, which, of course, cannot be further from the truth."
A 28-year veteran of the San Antonio Police Department, Darron Phillips, who has extensive experience after serving as a bomb technician and a detective, told the outlet that officers from his time are known to internalize trauma that they deal with when they are on the job. Phillips said, "One of the first things I was told as a young patrolman is don't you dare ever even call your sergeant if you have an issue. You call a senior patrolman over there, and you go to him first, and if he can't figure it out, then you call the sergeant. Sergeants did not want to be bothered in 1988 with a patrolman's little crap, so it already starts a culture where you kind of internalize stuff, and you keep it in-house."