Miami-Dade top cop’s suicide attempt proof mental health is an issue for law enforcement| Opinion
As he continues his recovery from a gunshot wound to the head, Miami-Dade’s Police Director Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez has become another sad statistic.
Ramirez’s shocking suicide attempt — he shot himself on a Florida highway after a public fight with his wife in Tampa — has graphically brought home what role mental health may have played here.
What prompted a decorated law-enforcement director readying for his run for sheriff of Miami-Dade to seek such a drastic solution to his problems? That remains the question those who know and work with Ramirez are grappling with.
It’s no secret that police officers report higher rates of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder than the general population, according to law enforcement statistics by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
And it’s no wonder. Law enforcement is one of the most stressful and demanding professions. Officers face life-threatening situations regularly and encounter tragedy and trauma as part of their jobs. They witness human suffering daily, yet are expected to remain stoic and to tough it out. The cumulative effect of this exposure to misery takes a toll, experts say, with some officers taking it out on loved ones at home.
For example, two years ago, scores of officers Miami-Dade, Miami and other municipalities responded to the collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, in which 98 people died. Officers had to deal with the shock and the misery of people in grief while also doing the difficult tasks demanded of them at the scene. Obviously, it was emotionally trying.
Ramirez was there daily during the tragedy’s aftermath, supervising his officers. At news conferences, he was his officers’ biggest cheerleader, making sure we all knew what they — and he — were enduring. And though this community is two years out from the horror of the Surfside collapse, many officers likely carry the emotional scars of being there.
As much of society increasingly has embraced the need for mental-health treatment, the stigma around it in law enforcement continues to be a barrier to officers seeking help. According the the National Institutes of Health, “Mental health problems among police employees are exacerbated by negative attitudes and beliefs around mental health help-seeking that are perpetuated by police culture.
Police officers are expected to maintain control over their emotions. Otherwise, their decision-making and performance will be questioned. They’ll be perceived by their brothers and sisters in blue as weak. They might jeopardize their chance at career advancement.
In many departments, however, the culture is evolving. Leaders are implementing behavioral-health programs and making other resources available. In fact, Ramirez was known as a director who encouraged his officers to seek help.
We still don’t know all the details of what transpired that night between Ramirez and his wife, Jody, but their fight created a frightening scene at a Tampa hotel where a sheriff’s conference was being held. The couple was asked to leave the JW Marriott by the staff. They headed home to Miami.
Despondent over the incident at the hotel and fearing his job as police director and his political aspirations were over, Ramirez called Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and offered to resign on the spot.
By 9:16 p.m., Ramirez had snapped and shot himself.
Tuesday night, at the request of the Miami Herald, Hillsborough County’s legal department released the recording of a 911 call from a woman believed to be Ramirez’s wife reporting her husband had just shot himself while on Interstate 75. The highly redacted call still reveals a chaotic scene where Ramirez was conscious after shooting himself in the head, wandering near traffic as his wife tried to coax him to safety.
“I need your help, and I need it now!,” the frantic woman says to the operator, who tells her help is on the way and cautions her not to follow Ramirez into traffic.
Ramirez will recover from his wounds, but there will be irreparable damage done to his body — he injured an eye in firing into his temple; his career as a law enforcement leader is in question; his political aspirations are likely gone. The sheriff’s race had been deemed his to lose. Sadly, he might have succeeded.
Ramirez, the department’s respected top cop, is now example No. 1 for officers who may be struggling in silence. They should learn from him and seek help.
Click here to send the letter.
