Corzine wants task force to look at Police suicides

by: Jason Springer

Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 11:13:00 AM EDT

Corzine's office says there was an average of 12 New Jersey law enforcement suicides each year from 2003 to 2007. Their have been eight so far this year.

The 14-member task force will develop a strategy to help law enforcement officials to deal with stress and other mental health issues among officers.

They called it the COP 2 COP line and said by 2007, it had already taken over 20,000 phone calls and averted 64 imminent suicides.

"Police officers are four times more likely to commit suicide than to be killed in the line of duty," said Cherie Castellano, program director of COP 2 COP at the UMDNJ-University Behavioral HealthCare. "COP 2 COP officers understand" 'the job' and they are trained to respond to calls from men and women who answer the call of duty daily."