Halifax police chief proposes publishing suicide stats to start conversation
Halifax’s police chief says his officers are seeing a disturbing rise in suicide calls, and is suggesting the city’s suicide rate be released to help start a conversation around the issue.
“This is becoming way too common,” said Chief Jean-Michel Blais.
He raised the idea at a police commission meeting this week, saying the data could come out monthly and wouldn’t include specific locations or details on what happened — just the outcomes.
“People are always afraid that there’s going to be the old issue of copycats,” he told Global News. “The reality is that there are suicides that occur. There is a significant number of attempts of suicides, and there’s a significant number of suicides that are completed.”