The largest law enforcement agency in America has a suicide problem.
Over the past 15 years, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has lost 146 employees to suicide. Senior officials became especially concerned this year because deaths spiked early on.
“We were sitting at five suicides, and that was alarming,” said acting CBP COO Benjamine “Carry” Huffman in an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner.
In the midst of a humanitarian and national security crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, CBP leadership needed to reform its approach to the well-being of its 60,000-strong workforce.
The federal agency became the first government entity to add a “suicidologist” to its ranks in the first half of 2021. Dr. Kent Corso works in the commissioner’s behavioral safety and risk management office and has spent more than a year quietly working on the issue, spurring major changes to the agency’s culture.
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employee suicides line graph-09.jpg”It is absolutely this top-to-bottom, uniform push,” Corso told the Washington Examiner.
Federal data provided to the Washington Examiner goes back to 2007, the lowest year on record for suicides. The number per calendar year peaked at 14 in 2009. As of September, 11 CBP employees have died by suicide this year. In one instance, the victim was not only a Border Patrol agent himself, but his father was also an active agent. Border Patrol agents make up roughly one-third of CBP’s workforce.
Frustration among agents in the Border Patrol has increased over the past 18 months as illegal immigration arrests spiked and agents were forced to release more than 1 million illegal immigrants into the interior of the country rather than remove them. Due to the volume of people illegally entering, Border Patrol redirected half of its agents to transport, process, and watch over people in custody.
While work stress is a significant factor, so, too, were relationship troubles, financial loss, and health issues, problems that it had never helped its workforce deal with before. Corso and Huffman wanted to get to the issue when it was still manageable rather than when people were barely hanging on.
“For years in the federal government, in the military, in the private sector, we’ve played the short game with suicide, and not only has it not worked, but it’s not realistic or sustainable. The long game is changing culture and changing conversation, and that doesn’t happen behind a desk,” Corso said.
CBP hired 21 clinicians, as well as 13 psychologists nationwide. The psychologists will serve as initial points of contact for employees to share any kind of concern, then advise what next steps make sense. Support staff also regularly attend daily meetings to be visible and accessible.
Corso and Huffman embarked on a cross-country tour this summer, holding about 60 town halls with their workforce.
Corso and Huffman are hoping to get people to ask for support in small ways before things get complicated. Because the admission of a suicide attempt or the thought of suicide means law enforcement must turn over their gun and be put on desk duty, some opt not to get help.
“If people love their job, and part of their identity is tied to their badge and their firearm, then we remove those things for safety reasons — what we have just inadvertently done, we’ve also reduced their meaning and purpose in life. So, we’ve inadvertently ratcheted up the pressure on them when they’re already feeling at a loss and suicidal,” said Corso.
They are pushing the workforce to come forward with problems such as trouble communicating with a spouse, feeling tired most of the time, or drinking to excess. By bringing the concerns to psychologists, employees can be sent in the right direction for care, sometimes as simple as going to get vitamins for sleep or talking with a professional once a week about moving through a difficult time in life.
Beyond the suicides, Corso is focused on celebrating the “saves,” instances when employees reached out to peers for support in a crisis moment. Several months ago, two Border Patrol agents were saved after one of them chose not to use his gun on himself after calling peer support, and another agent contemplating suicide was interrupted by a sheriff who found him parked on the side of the road with a gun in his lap.
Despite the forward motion, CBP has faced setbacks. Last September, Corso began a monthly podcast focused on normalizing conversations about stress, suicidal thoughts, when and where to get help, and how to cope with the deaths of fellow agents and loved ones. At about the time he recorded an episode with Yuma Border Patrol Chief Chris Clem, he learned that a senior agent in that region, Vinny Dulesky, had taken his life.
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CBP has rolled out social media campaigns such as Border Patrol’s “Be The One” video, in which agents in the field and at its headquarters in Washington encourage others to “be the one” who asks for help, spreads empathy, goes beyond the surface, listens, or saves a life.
“These campaigns in particular are aimed at destigmatizing help-seeking behavior because when we look at not only Americans but law enforcement specifically, they avoid seeking help,” said Corso. “You can’t surge trust. You’ve got to have it established up front, but prior to crisis, and those are the things we’re trying to do.”