Government urged to act on police suicides

The letter, from Hampshire Police Federation Chair and STEP (Suicide Trauma Education Prevention) campaign founder Spencer Wragg and Sussex Police Federation Chair Raffaele Cioffi, calls on the Government to properly record suicide numbers, increase funding for mental health support and push chief constables to roll out a suicide prevention app to all officers and staff.

The letter was handed over ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day. It was co-signed by Michelle Websdale, former wife of Sussex Sergeant Ben Websdale, and Nena Hodges, sister of West Mercia PC Dane Roleston-Lowe — both men died by suicide last year.

Speaking outside the Home Office, Mr Wragg said: “Last year there were 13 officers who we know took their own lives. This year, we’re only in September and that number has been surpassed. This issue isn’t going away.”

He said the issue needed to be better understood, adding that stigma around suicide made people reluctant to ask for help. An increasing number of officers and staff have reported suicide attempts, which Wragg said was concerning but also suggested growing confidence in speaking out and accessing support.

The letter calls on the Government to:

• Require all forces to accurately record officer and staff suicides
• Push chief constables to roll out the Stay Alive app, provided by the Grassroots Suicide Prevention charity, to all officers and staff
• Secure a commitment from the NHS for greater mental health and wellbeing support for at-risk officers
• Require forces to provide early intervention and support, including mandatory trauma referrals for officers under investigation and those who have attended a suicide
• Provide ring-fenced wellbeing funding on top of existing force budgets
• Review the purpose of Professional Standards Departments and the IOPC, and the impact of their work on officers under investigation

Cioffi said suicide risk rose when “a police officer’s home life and work life become completely imbalanced and there’s a crisis in both”, and said forces were not taking that risk seriously enough. He described rising officer suicide numbers as unacceptable “for us to stand by and let… continue without making representations to those who can truly make a change”.

According to Police Federation of England and Wales figures, more than 100 police officers and staff died by suicide between 2022 and 2025, including at least 70 officers, alongside more than 200 attempted suicides. Of those, 47 of the 70 officer suicides and 173 of the 236 attempted suicides in that period involved officers subject to misconduct or criminal investigations. In 2025, 12 of the 13 officer suicides involved officers under investigation at the time.

Mr Hodges, whose brother served with West Mercia Police for more than 28 years, said: “Dane was not a statistic, a number or a headline — he was a brother, a son, a father, a friend and a much-loved member of the policing family… Enough is enough. We must act before another family is left asking whether more could have been done to save the person they love.”

The group has asked the Policing Minister to back the STEP campaign and to meet them to discuss their requests.

Police officers and staff struggling with their mental health can contact the Mental Health Crisis Line on 0300 131 2789, or Samaritans on 116 123.