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Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Editorial: Deputy deaths are a reminder that law enforcement can be ... - Los Angeles Times

Warning: This editorial includes discussion of suicide.

A law enforcement officer’s job is difficult and dangerous and takes its toll on body, mind and spirit. A reminder of that cost came last week with the shocking and tragic deaths by suicide of four active and former Los Angeles County sheriff’s personnel within a 24-hour period.

Investigations are ongoing. The deceased reportedly include a retired sheriff’s sergeant, a custody assistant and two deputies. Altogether, there have been eight deaths by suicide among current and former Sheriff’s Department employees this year.

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Four current and former L.A. Sheriff’s Department employees died by suicide in a 24-hour span

Nov. 7, 2023

Policing necessarily entails violence and trauma. Like all first responders, police officers and deputies experience human crises on a continuing basis and encounter grievous injury and death on a scale that’s difficult for those not in their profession to understand. Unlike other first responders, their work requires them to be prepared to exert deadly force. Society demands it of them and gives them the weapons, the training and the legal authority to do it.

The responsibility to exercise that power in a way that protects the innocent as well as themselves, and yet not physically harm perpetrators needlessly, is mind-boggling. The consequences of making a mistake can be fatal, and officers who survive an encounter that leaves a...



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