FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA -- It's not news that police officers have dangerous jobs. But what we rarely talk about is the hidden danger they face every day and what it's doing to them psychologically.
The hidden danger is the trauma of seeing horrible crimes day after day.
The result of absorbing all that tragedy is this: suicide is the number one killer of law enforcement in the United States, according to the Ruderman Foundation.
Their study found that in 2017, 103 firefighters and 140 police officers took their own lives, compared to 93 firefighters and 129 officers who died in the line of duty.
This week, two children and their mother were found murdered in a Herndon home in an apparent double-murder suicide.
Last month, two children were fatally shot in their Tysons' home. Their mother is charged. Horrific, unimaginable tragedies like that take a toll on first responders.
"What we do as first responders over and over again is respond to the worst moments in life. They're in crisis. And we deal with death a lot. And that has a cumulative impact upon our mental well-being as first responders," said Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler.
Roessler has been impacted personally. He knew seven people who took their lives in 2017: his neighbor, along with several active and retired officers.
In the last five years, five Fairfax County active and retired officers died by suicide.
"The repetitive nature of the horrific calls is trauma upon each and every first responder. And, sometimes we need to call a time-out and take care of the muscle between our ears, which can be damaged from seeing the trauma that others create and creates our own trauma. So it's important for us to understand mental health impacts us all, including myself," said Roessler.
Roessler said he takes care of his own mental health by regularly seeing a counselor. He wants his legacy in the department to be new focus on mental health and suicide prevention. He wants every officer to know it's not just okay, but necessary to ask for help.
Roessler is part of a team of county leaders that will be walking in the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's Out of the Darkness walk in Fairfax for the first time. They're taking a public stance in hopes of stopping suicide. The walk is in Fairfax on Saturday, September 29th.
Retired Fairfax Firefighter Leigh Boswell is the organizer of the walk. She became active after firefighter Nicole Mittendorff took her own life two years ago.
John Wood who runs the 29 Diner in Fairfax is also involved. He's cooking barbecue straight until Sunday morning to raise money for AFSP. His friend Tom Worosz lost his 17-year-old son Connor to suicide two years ago.
"I could just crawl under a rock and grieve or I could try to help stop other suicide. We don't know when we'll save that one family from walking in our shoes. If I can prevent another family from walking in our shoes, but we get up every morning knowing we haven't done it yet and we're going to keep on trying," said Tom Worosz.
He learned the day his son hanged himself in a park, that Conner had told a friend that he wanted to kill himself. The friend didn't tell anyone until the next day, but it was too late.
Tom wants to spread awareness so friends can save friends and everyone learns how to save themselves by getting help.
