The mental health of the police should be addressed. Picture: Itumeleng English/African News Agency(ANA)
While women are increasingly joining the police services in numbers, policing has historically been a masculine career, and masculine in a way which leaves no room for officers to express their feelings or misgivings about the job they do and in other parts of their lives, and society adds pressure with the "real men don't cry" mantra.
Those who may want to seek help are deterred by the ... that men who acknowledge their pain and seek psychological support are weak.
We should not be surprised then that police commit suicide at the rate of nearly 40 a year for the last few years, and sometimes take others with them.
Against this background it is therefore commendable that more than 1 000 police officers have sought treatment for depression and other mental health-related issues.
But this figure is just a drop in the proverbial ocean when compared to the total number of officers in the police service, and those who need help.
Mental health experts and the police union have called for urgent intervention to get more officers to seek help, but to take it a step further, counselling should be made mandatory, removing the risk of appearing weak by taking away the element of choice.
The current police health and wellness programme leaves a lot to be desired, as evidenced by officers continuing to take their own lives or being booked off for long periods while trying to cope.
Policing is a highly stressed job which often goes unrewarded as the wheels of justice turn extremely slowly. Then there is the issue of being paid a pittance for placing their lives at risk daily, in an environment where crime rates are constantly increasing and criminals increasingly violent.
The SA Police Service must do more to support officers living with the effects of their traumatic and stressful working conditions.
Officers in mental distress are a danger to themselves and those around them, and no good in the fight against crime.