"As an Officer I think a large portion of the increase can be attributed to the proliferation of social media, specifically Facebook. Several suicidal party calls are generated through social media, ie.'She posted suicidal statements on Facebook.' The vast majority of these calls are false alarms and I've never seen anyone EPC'd over a Facebook posting. I can't even think of a time that a Facebook threat has led to a self admit. Usually when we find the poster, he/she are clearly not suicidal and typically were looking for attention or upset with a friend of family member and trying to scare them. The increase in social media over the last few years should be noted when looking at the increase of these types of calls. "
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Maybe it's Facebook
There was an intriguing comment submitted this morning on one of last week's posts. The topic of the original post was the increase in mental health investigations by the police. The person leaving the comment has his or her own theory on something that may be contributing to this increase. I thought it was interesting enough to merit it's own post:
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16 comments:
You can set your language to pirate on Facebook.
How about text messages threatening suicide, or cryptic txts saying they just wanted to say goodbye or something like that. I always figured that if someone wanted to kill themselves, they'd just do it by some method very unlikely to fail, and not call or warn anyone. I'd think that if you really did want to make a valediction, you'd write or type a letter that could be found at the scene, or mail it to the intended recipient immediately before your suicide.
After all, if a person really wanted to die, they wouldn't want any EMTs arriving in the nick of time, would they? No.
Unless they're just a drama queen, that is.
So, do pirates ever commit suicide by walking the plank without someone forcing them at sword point? Are there warning signs, as on the Golden Gate Bridge, to tell people walking off the end of the plank can cause serious injury or death?
Director,
I am in the middle of THE BROKEN WINDOW by Jeffery Deaver. There is a lot of information in this novel that is related to your last Blog and the Blog today.
It is a fascinating story. I have a feeling that Deaver knows a heckuva lot more about police forensic procedures than ALL of the writers on CSI and some of the other TV dramas devoted to forensic investigations.
Gun Nut
I would much rather see officers follow up on each and every one of the cry for help Facebook posts to make sure that they don't miss the one post that was a person truly intent on suicide.
I would much rather see officers follow up on each and every one of the cry for help Facebook posts to make sure that they don't miss the one post that was a person truly intent on suicide.
Well, since we already have one of the lowest officer-citizen ratios of almost any mid-sized city, from where would you suggest that LPD find the extra staffing to "follow up on every one of the cry for help Facebook posts to make sure that they don't miss the one post that was a person truly intent on suicide."?
I'd much rather see drama queens give up their amateur thespian career. If they just want to vent for the purpose of relieving stress and exasperation, they should talk to their pet or perhaps a plant.
Facebook posts, if deemed to be an indication of a potential suicide or call for help ought to elicit a response from friends or family, not the police. The police should only be involved if a suicide attempt is imminent, or in progress, and friends/family can do nothing on their own to stop it.
The bottom line is that if someone makes the police aware there is someone they think may be suicidal because of a Facebook post they read or a text message they received the police have to look into it. If it's ignored and the person kills themselves, just think of the bad press and everything else that will follow.
Anon 7:56
Bad press is the only kind we have here in Lincoln.
Cell phones are also great when you're stuck in the 14th and Superior "Cyclone of Death" and trying to get out. Nice to see the Roundabout is the second highest traffic accident intersection in the city now. Ha!
Anon 11:08
Cell phones are probably the cause of most of those accidents, too.
Look kids; Big Ben! Parliament!
Look kids; Big Ben! Parliament!
Can you give us some info on the CNG parking car featured on the news? How much did it cost?
Absolutely off topic but I'm curious if LFR has a limit on department vehicles that can be used in the funeral procession for a fire fighter killed in the line of duty.
To 6:11pm. Get over it. How many cruiser's is to your satisfaction because it won't be to someone elses. If a cop died in the line of duty I am guessing the amount of cruisers would be overwhelming. Just because a parade of cruiser's wasn't sent to a recent officers funeral who was not killed in the line of duty but rather a car accident in which could have been prevented if a seat belt would have been worn, it's not reason to harp on this policy about cruisers at a funeral. An officer dying in the line of duty as a hero deserves a hero funeral. An officer who dies outside of that heroism does not deserve it. Heroes are proven by action, the title should not be just handed out because they wear a badge. I know a lot of cops who are not heroes. Hero title is earned.
Notice I asked about killed in the line of duty, not driving to work while not wearing your seat belt. I was just curious if policy was the same for both departments for line of duty deaths. Chill out.
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