Calls for mental health support for Sussex Police officers after deaths
At least 15 police officers have taken their own lives this year - including one in Sussex.
At least 15 police officers have taken their own lives this year - including one in Sussex.
The numbers add up to more than the whole of 2025.
The figures come as the Sussex Police Federation calls on the government to do more to support officers with their mental health, and record suicide numbers.
The appeal follows an inquest into Sussex Police officer Ben Websdale, whose ended his own life after being impacted by a young person who he had released from custody taking their own life, and later becoming subject of a separate misconduct appeal.
Last year, 12 of 13 police officer suicides involved officers under investigation.
A coroner identified no recording of cases, and that despite being exposed to high level of trauma, the right support was often unavailable.
Raffaele Cioffee, the Chair of the Sussex Police Federation, explained:
"At the moment we don't know what the true scale of this epidemic is at the moment.
"By having that analytical data, it really allows us to see what the picture is, what the root cause of it is and how we can most importantly mitigate that issue moving forward."
A letter delivered to the policing minister also called for greater mental health support in the NHS for at risk officers, extra funding for wellbeing support and for a crisis support app to be installed on all police phones.
"When you become a police officer, you do not realise the situations that you're going to put yourself in," Raffaele added.
"And those situations are quite traumatic.
"We are going to your murders, your car crashes that have fatalities, your young children that have passed away and all of these traumas build up.
"And in a police officer's career, we've estimated that they will experience about 400 to 600 traumatic events - versus four to six for the average person." We've contacted the government for comment.