The FBI's Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection

Casey King and Jeffrey Fisher

The work of correctional officers can be tremendously stressful and dangerous as they attempt to maintain peaceful order within facilities and between inmates while dealing with challenges such as overcrowding and understaffing. Coupled with demanding personal circumstances, the stress involved in this important line of work can make daily life seem insurmountable, leading some individuals to die by or attempt suicide. To support efforts to understand the complexity and nature of suicides and attempted suicides among corrections and jail officers, as well as other law enforcement and public safety officers, the FBI established the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection (LESDC).

Launching LESDC

The United States Congress enacted, and the President signed into law, the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act on June 16, 2020, to strengthen agencies’ ability to understand and prevent suicides and attempted suicides among current and former law enforcement officers, corrections employees, 911 operators, judges, and prosecutors. Later that year, the FBI conducted a 5-month pilot study on a new data collection about law enforcement suicide based on that law and input from criminal justice partners. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program established the LESDC Task Force at the recommendation of the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Advisory Policy Board from its December 2020 meeting and subsequent approval by the Director of the FBI.

The CJIS Advisory Policy Board LESDC Task Force convened in January 2021 to decide on a set of recommendations. Over the course of several meetings, the task force recommended the data elements, reporting requirements, and publication concepts for LESDC. Membership of the LESDC Task Force included representatives of:

The Association of State Uniform Crime Reporting Programs, which represents the FBI’s UCR Program on the national, regional, and state levels.
Blue H.E.L.P., which educates and advocates on behalf of those in law enforcement who struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics, the statistical agency of the Department of Justice.
The Executive Office for United States Attorneys, which provides support to the 93 U.S. Attorneys from across the nation.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which works to maintain professional standards and consistent management of federal prisons.
Federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police, which is the world’s largest association of police leaders.
The Major Cities Chiefs Association, which represents leadership of the largest cities in the United States and Canada.
The National Native American Law Enforcement Association, which promotes cooperation between American Indian law enforcement, communities, and the public.
The National Sheriffs’ Association, which represents sheriffs and deputies across the United States.
State statistical analysis centers, which support state collection of criminal justice data.
Subject matter experts in the field of law enforcement mental health.
Based on the success of the pilot study and the Task Force’s recommendations, the FBI launched the LESDC on January 1, 2022. LESDC now serves as a mechanism for criminal justice agencies and 911 operations to report suicides and attempted suicides. Notably, LESDC is the first component of the FBI’s UCR Program to include data about correctional and jail officers.

How LESDC Works

While incident submission to this data collection is voluntary, the FBI compiles the following information about each current or former law enforcement employee who dies by or attempts suicide:

Circumstances and events that occurred before each suicide or attempted suicide
General location
Demographic information
Occupational category
Method used in each suicide or attempted suicide

This reported information does not include any personal information that directly identifies a current or former law enforcement employee. LESDC also does not collect data on suicidal thoughts, ideas, or plans. According to the Frequently Asked Questions on the LESDC page in the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer (CDE) webpage, an attempted suicide is defined as a nonfatal act of self-harm with an intent to die because of the behavior but falls short of completing the suicide.1

LESDC Findings

In the FBI’s 2025 report to Congress for statistics from 2024, among the 41 instances of suicide for which the occupational category was known, 2 were community/corrections staff, and 1 was a non-officer correctional employee.2 Among the 10 reported suicide attempts in 2024, 8 were non-officer correctional employees, and 1 was community/corrections staff.3

While the LESDC captures data on the suicides and attempted suicides of jail and correctional officers, the FBI’s UCR Program does not yet post the incident-level data—on factors such as demographics and circumstances—by specific occupation in the data visualization on the CDE. However, the overall figures on numbers of incidents by occupational category are publicly available in the FBI’s report to Congress, which is downloadable from CDE.

Jail officers face a different set of challenges than police officers in the street. However, the similarities of risks and stressors can make LESDC data useful for identifying risk factors for either group. Findings from data collected for 2025 include:

Of those who committed suicide, 22 were male, and 4 were female.
19 of the incidents of suicide involved firearms.
For officers who committed suicide, the most common amount of law enforcement experience was zero to five years.
Among the 10 officers who attempted suicide, the most common location type was residential.
The most common duty status among officers who attempted suicide was off duty.
Among both those officers who committed suicide and those who attempted suicide, most were not the subject of an administrative investigation.

The LESDC statistics can be found on the FBI’s CDE website.4 The site allows users to view data for law enforcement officers’ suicide or attempted suicide including the location type of the incident; manner of suicide or attempted suicide; the individuals’ employment status and demographics; and additional information such as whether the individual was on duty. The CDE has dropdown menus for users to make selections to customize data outputs and automatically generate graphs to download.

The FBI encourages jails and corrections agencies to participate in LESDC. With increased participation and reporting of incidents on officer suicides and attempted suicides, LESDC can provide more meaningful statistics, including those that are specifically useful for officers who work in jails and prisons. Greater amounts of participation will help provide a vital background for contextual understanding of incidents. Also, agencies should understand that they do not need to submit a zero report to participate if the agencies do not have a reportable incident.

In the CDE, users can easily sort, filter, and visualize data from LESDC or other UCR collections, such as in this automatically generated bar graph of years of service among officers who committed suicide.

The Role of Corrections in the Reentry Path

Law enforcement personnel can participate in LESDC through the LESDC dashboard on the FBI’s Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal (LEEP).5 Agencies can also request an LESDC Preparation Worksheet as a PDF, complete it, and email it to UCR staff at UCR@fbi.gov. LEEP accounts are available to personnel who perform or support the administration of criminal justice. To apply for a LEEP account, agencies can go to cjis.gov and complete the online application. Agencies are encouraged to voluntarily submit incident reports to LESDC as soon as possible after the incident is known, or at least within 120 days of the incident. Only employing or investigating agencies can submit data on officer suicides or attempts.

Resources

While LEEP access is reserved to law enforcement and public safety entities, the public can view LESDC data on the FBI’s CDE website. With LESDC, statistics on officer suicides and attempted suicides can help enhance society’s understanding of the stress and risk of the profession. LESDC statistics can provide important insights to improve training and assistance for at-risk officers. Those interested can find more information at the bottom of the LESDC page on the FBI’s CDE website.6 Some of the helpful resources on the page include:

The text of the Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Act.
An LESDC flyer.
Frequently asked questions about LESDC.
The FBI’s reports to Congress about LESDC.
An LESDC introductory video.

Jails and correctional facilities that wish to participate in LESDC can contact the LESDC office by calling 304-625-4830 or emailing UCR@FBI.gov.

Casey King

Casey King is a program analyst with the FBI. She is a graduate of Fairmont State University and West Virginia University and has worked for the FBI’s CJIS Division since 2021.

Jeffrey Fisher

Jeffrey Fisher is a writer-editor with the FBI’s Law Enforcement Engagement Unit. He has a master’s degree from West Virginia University, and he has worked for the FBI since 1997. He manages the FBI’s “CJIS Link” blog, and his articles about law enforcement biometrics, data systems, and policy have appeared in various trade publications. For more information, he can be contacted at jfisher2@fbi.gov

References

FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “LESDC FAQs: What is meant by an ‘attempted’ suicide for Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection (LESDC)?” United States Department of Justice (January 2023): https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/faq/LESDC.
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection (LESDC): Resources: LESDC Report to Congress: Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Report to Congress, Annual Submission,” (p. 7), United States Department of Justice (June 16, 2025): https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/le/lesdc.
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection (LESDC): Resources: LESDC Report to Congress: Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection Report to Congress, Annual Submission,” (p. 7-8).
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “Crime Data Explorer,” United States Department of Justice (March 15, 2026): https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov.
FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division, “Law Enforcement Enterprise Portal,” United States Department of Justice (August 29, 2024): https://www.cjis.gov.
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, “Crime Data Explorer: Law Enforcement Suicide Data Collection (LESDC): Resources,” United States Department of Justice (March 14, 2026): https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/le/lesdc.