Suicides in the police: the reasons for a black series

Ten police officers have committed suicide since January 1. A dizzying figure but which says nothing about the deep flaws and invisible wounds of Yannick, 34, CRS found hanged on January 7, Pierre-Yves, 30, assigned to the financial brigade, who killed himself at him on January 15 with his service weapon, or Meghan, a young policewoman from the Lille police station, who, on January 13, at the age of 23, also turned her weapon against her. A figure that reveals nothing, either, of the lives of those and all the others who, in the space of three weeks, have decided to end it – except that something is wrong.

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In Baho, on the outskirts of Perpignan, Yannick’s family would like his story to help the administration understand the loneliness in which its civil servants struggle. Yannick was a caring son, the loving father of two little girls, a happy man, a joker and very protective of his brother and sisters. He taught them to drive, to fish for trout, to defend themselves by doing arm locks. At an early age, he wanted to become a policeman. “He loved the idea of ​​being a hero, of serving,” recalls his sister Florine. His favorite quote is displayed on his Facebook wall: “If I advance, follow me, if I die, avenge me, if I retreat, kill me”, borrowed from the leader of the chouans, Henri de La Rochejaquelein .

To Yannick’s sister, who was looking for explanations, the commander would have replied curtly: “I know what it’s like to have your feet in blood!”

For years, he felt out of place. He loved action, the life of the CRS 43 at the barracks of Chalon-sur-Saône, barbecues with friends, esprit de corps, rugby, parties. A neat boy, always well dressed, proud of his security missions at the Stade de France. And then, in 2018, everything collapsed: he was first attacked in Grenoble, while playing petanque with friends. One of his buddies comes close to death. He blames himself for not being able to defend him. He suffered another assault in his barracks: a CRS colleague, a former boxer, beat him up.

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At the same time, the direction of his company changes and the current does not pass any more with the new commander. These three successive events precipitate his destiny. Yannick feels unwell, has dark thoughts. Placed on long-term sick leave, he gradually sinks into alcohol, lets himself slip. He does not speak of his sufferings to anyone, refuses aid. His family is powerless: “For me, sighs Marion, his younger sister, these incidents have chipped his image as a “hero”. He became a victim and it broke him deeply. »

On January 1, after a four-year descent into hell, Yannick published a hundred photos of himself on Facebook. His life in pictures. We see his features harden, a thick beard appear, his smile twist into a grin. For only comment, he leaves this playful sentence: “What memories with you! He had, on that date, already decided to end it and wrote an eight-page farewell letter, without pathos, without tears. Almost a departure letter on a trip: “I look forward to being this ghost for my relatives, my friends, the people I love, a kind, benevolent and protective ghost. Don’t be afraid, it’s me! Yannick is waiting for his mother, Claudine, to return from vacation to take action. On January 7, he parks his car in front of her house, places his keys, his letter, his telephone and his papers on the dining room table, then leaves on foot, with a rope in his backpack. , to a corner of the countryside where he loved to go when he was a child. He who, on Facebook, always reacted to the suicide of his colleagues no longer has the strength to continue.

“All those deaths in the police, it was killing him,” said his mother. A week after the tragedy, Marion went to the Chalon barracks to meet her brother’s superiors. “I wanted to understand, I wanted things to change, but I only met with indifference. We are not supported by anyone. The commander didn’t bother to call my mother, to write a letter. That’s what a man’s life is worth. For them, it’s just the end of an alcoholic. ” To Yannick’s sister, who was looking for explanations, the commander of the barracks would have replied curtly: “I have known eight suicides, I know what it is to have your feet in blood. “To one of his best friends, a few days before the tragedy, Yannick had said: “Use my story. The friend had not understood the message. Today, Yannick’s family would like his death to help raise awareness.

The black series of this month of January is not a fatality, the specialists of the suicide affirm it. To stop this, they say, the police would have to change their culture, split the armor, break the silence in order to communicate, to put words to these deaths. After the peak in 1996, when 71 suicides were recorded, an Operational Psychological Support Service (SSPO) was created. Is it sufficient ? “The victims are people who have been suffering for months, years without being accompanied,” says Catherine Pinson, director of the SSPO. In the police, people are used to fending for themselves. But things are changing. Over the past five years, there has been a 45% increase in individual interviews. ” Deputy Director of the Directorate General of the National Police (DGPN), Tiphaine Pinault recalls the words of the 2019 prevention campaign: – “Being strong is knowing how to ask for help” -, and insists on the importance of communicating on existing resources, such as the Sentinel project, inspired by what is being done in Montreal, two days of training to help police officers detect suicidal crises in their colleagues.

For Christophe Girard, police officer at Bac de Dijon and vice-president of Pep’s-SOS police officers in distress, an association he created in 2019, these measures are good but insufficient: “Since 1996, on average, 45 police officers have committed suicide every year. This is 41% higher than the suicide rate in the working population. The Ministry of the Interior mobilizes a hundred psychologists to help 140,000 French police officers. Even with the best will in the world, many victims slip through the cracks. Christophe Girard decided to create his association because he lost more friends by suicide than on mission, because the administration too often evoked “personal reasons” to explain these suicides, because he knows by heart these cops who find it tragic to go to see a shrink, who are afraid of being downgraded if they deliver the bottom of their thoughts to the SSPO: “Colleagues know that they can enter an office, confide, then, a half an hour later, to be disarmed. So they prefer to talk to us. »

Since 1996, an average of 45 police officers commit suicide each year

Trained in emergency psychological aid, the association’s 26 volunteers receive 500 calls per month, compared to less than a hundred on the number of the Ministry of the Interior. Pep’s dreams of seeing France adopt the 6C protocol for its police, invented by an Israeli officer, reducing the risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “It’s not magic, it’s neuroscience with fifteen years of feedback. When there is great stress, the amygdala, the center of emotions, takes control. It is therefore necessary to remobilize the prefrontal cortex. »

Affected by the situation, the DGPN met Pep’s last Monday and showed itself ready to follow his proposals. In the meantime, Christophe Girard is keen to tell the story of his colleague Damien, an intelligent, generous, sensitive, hot-headed, public entertainer, fell in love with the police, who shot himself in the head one day in despair. . Today, intense blue gaze, banter of uncle gunslinger, he is alive, his mouth barely broken, saved by chance or by a miracle.

Lost in the action, never saving himself, Damien lived for a long time on the front line, taking hits until he chipped. A bullet demolishes his shoulder, a drug addict breaks his face, a rape scene traumatizes him; and then the people reduced to a pile of meat on the railway tracks dampen his enthusiasm, a very difficult divorce crushes him and, finally, alcohol invites itself to his table.

On April 16, 2019, Damien holds his gun in his hand and looks at the photo of his children in his living room. He drank. He sends a last SMS to his friends: “Tell my mother that I was a good guy. He loses track of time. The friends arrive, break down the door. He panics at the idea of ​​being saved. Does not want to pass for a deflated. So he shoots himself under the chin. He hears “Damien! Why ? And then nothing. More sound. The bullet, ricocheting off his palate, came out through his temple without burning his brain. He goes back and forth on the pool table. Facial surgery. Months of rehabilitation. He gets up but falls back. Alcohol, depression. He swallows 200 pills, we save him again. He wants to kill himself on a motorcycle. Christophe and Pep’s do not let go. He goes through all the psychiatric units in the country. He is diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, high potential and an IQ of 146. Answers, finally.

Today, Damien, who is no longer afraid to say when things are going wrong, helps his colleagues put their misfortunes into words.

And then, one day, thanks to the help of Pep’s, of his new girlfriend (“I told her that I was a cop, an alcoholic, that I had put a bullet in my head, and she stayed! “), everything changes. An addictologist lets go: “Listen, you have two solutions. Either you decide to live, or you die. The room you occupy, people need it. And these simple, raw words upset him. He lowers his guard: “What killed me was my mask, my shell, my Cartesian side. »

Today, Damien, who is no longer afraid to say when things are not going well, helps his colleagues put their misfortunes into words. He has already saved three who were about to fuck themselves up: “I tell them: ‘Take five minutes, listen. It’s not easy to hear and even harder to believe, but try it anyway, it costs nothing. Happiness will return. You have to, it’s scientific!” »

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