TEHRAN, Jul 29 - Another police officer with the New York Police Department has died from an apparent suicide, the fifth NYPD officer to take his own life in the past two months and the seventh since the beginning of 2019, amid what officials have declared a "mental health crisis."
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The officer, whose name was not immediately released, was found dead on Saturday at his home in the New York City borough of Staten Island, US media reported.
"The tragic news today that another member of the NYPD has been lost to suicide breaks our hearts, and is a deep sorrow felt by all of New York City," NYPD Police Commissioner James O'Neill said in a statement released late Saturday.
"To every member of the NYPD, please know this: it is okay to feel vulnerable. It is okay if you are facing struggles," he said. "And it is okay to seek help from others. You may not know this, and it may be hard to imagine, but you are not out there all by yourself."
In June, three NYPD officers died by suicide in less than 10 days, including a precinct chief and an experienced detective, prompting O'Neill to warn of a "mental health crisis" in the department.
The NYPD has averaged about four or five suicides each year over the past five years, O'Neill said in June.
More than 100 law enforcement officers in the United States have so far taken their own lives in 2019, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan, the department's highest ranking uniformed police officer, said in June.
In a survey conducted last year by NBC New York, 78 percent of police officers across the US reported experiencing critical stress on the job, with 16 percent saying the stress triggers thoughts of suicide.
A 2018 study by the Ruderman Family Foundation, a philanthropic organization, found policemen and firefighters are more likely to die by suicide than in the line of duty.
Rates of deaths from suicides, drug overdoses and alcohol have reached an all-time high in the United States, especially among young adults, according to a report published last month by health policy organizations Trust for America's Health and Well Being Trust.
Source: Press TV
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