Suicide by Cop: Police shooting as a method of self-harming

Suicide by Cop (SbC) incidents, police-related deaths that could be considered suicides due to the subject's precipitated actions that demonstrate suicidal motivations through words or behavior are difficult to classify. The subjects’ intent is not understood, and risk factors for SbC incidents include the complication of others’ interactions. The current study advances a set of indicators that help classify police shootings that could be considered SbC.Using a modification of the decision tree developed by Best, Quigley, & Bailey (2004) to assess suicidal intentions of police shootings through observable acts, the current study compares cases classified as self-inflicted suicide or suicide attempts with those classified as SbC cases in the Hostage Barricade Data System (HOBAS).Overall the model increased the percentage of cases correctly predicted to 97.9 percent, 16.9 percent beyond chance. The primary indicators are significant. Other historical or situational variables did not improve the odds of predicting the SbC versus self-inflicted suicides.

Research Highlights► Suicide by Cop (SbC) incidents are police shootings that could be considered suicides due to the subject's precipitated actions that demonstrate suicidal motivations through words or behavior. ► SbC are difficult to classify because they involve many of the complexities surrounding the study of suicide including no living subjects. ► The current research found support for a model that must contain some level of three primary indicators-- communicate intent, showed intent, and/or planned intent to be killed. ► SbC subjects were more likely than self-inflicted suicide subjects to have committed a criminal act that culminated in SbC, less likely to surrender to police, and/or more likely to have possessed a weapon, often a gun. ► Accompanying SbC subjects’ higher frequency of multiple suicide attempts, the formula for a violent interaction with the police was imminent and often deadly as noted by the significant difference in the lethal outcomes between self-inflicted and SbC subjects.