George Weston.

On March 14, 1980, Toronto Police Constable Michael Sweet was killed in a hail of gunfire, Because of his tragic passing Mike will be eternally remembered by his police brothers and sisters. Unfortunately there are many other officers who will not be remembered, simply because they took their own lives.

On this day also, another officer died of gunshot wounds. This officer was Toronto Police Constable Ian Irving, and was a C.S.O. at 11 Division. Constable Irving was just 32 years old with a family.

Constable Irving had become increasingly despondent over personal problems. On the day in question, prior to kids coming home for lunch from school, he wrote letters to his family and to the police department (ours) as to the circumstances. He then phoned 911 and asked them to send someone over before his kids came home, and then ended his own life.

A third officer died that day, although not in the physical sense. His actual death occurred twenty-five-plus years later. On Oct. 12, 2005, chapel services were held for Edward Adamson, the 58-year-old grandfather of a then 8 year-old boy, at the McDougall and Brown Funeral Home on Kingston Rd.

Ed Adamson retired from the Toronto Police Service on January 31, 1994 after 26 years of service. In October of 2005 he killed himself, with his own gun, in a motel room. He was surrounded by his memo books, and press photos, from the PC Sweet murder case. Grief and a feeling of powerlessness finally got to him. It has since been ruled that Ed died as a result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a milestone in recognizing this illness.

In the history of the Toronto Police Service, there have been 22 recorded Police Suicides since 1975. Fortunately, with the advent of EAP and changes made within the Service, up until 2007 there had not been a suicide within the ranks, since 1992. Then in 2007, two uniform officers, one civilian and an auxiliary officer took their own lives.

As a side bar to the above story, many other Police officer suicides should be remembered through the years. The recent story in the Toronto Sun newspaper about Sgt Adamson’s case made it clear that death can be the "only way out” for some officers, who cannot escape the anguish of not "doing enough” in a particular case.

A prime example was Detective Mike Pedley, one of the lead investigators in the Sharin’ Morningstar Keenan murder, in Toronto in 1981. Her killer, Denis Melvin Howe, has never been found, and Mike Peddle eventually took his own life in frustration over not being there in time to save Sharin’, and despair of not finding Howe.

Further research shows many other police suicides, some before 1900.

In 1958, after a number of conflicts with Mayor Gardiner and members of the newly expanded, Metropolitan Toronto Board of Police Commissioners, Chief Chisholm drove to High Park on the city's west end, parked his car and committed suicide with his service revolver. The late Staff Superintendent, Jack Webster, one of the officers who arrived at the scene of the Chief's death and who would upon his retirement in the 1990s become the Force Historian at the Toronto Police Museum, would later write, “Suicide is a constant partner in every police car".

Police Constable K. He went in to work as usual, picked up his gun and book and a set of keys and casually went out. Everything seemed like always as he was a very steady guy. Anyway, he went missing and everyone, OPP included started looking for him when from somewhere a hint of suicide surfaced.

The officer, not a drinker bought a six pack and went out into Durham, drank his six beers which would have just wiped him out. Poor guy was spotted on a side road by officers and when they tried to approach him, he ran from the car into a ditch and shot him self.

Unknown. This officer ended his life in the washroom on the third floor of Police HQ. This was on the same floor where all of the Detective Squads were located. The year was 1976 or 1977. It is thought that he was a Detective Sergeant from Morality. Possibly, an Etobicoke officer before joining Metro. It turned out he had been suffering from depression for some years.

George Weston. This Constable took his own life on 30th May 1903, when he shot himself at his Cowan Avenue police station. Apparently the week before he had been found guilty of drinking at work and was docked one weeks pay. Policeman Weston was 41 years of age and was a splendidly built man over 6 feet in height. He joined the Toronto Force on May 8, 1883 and previous to that spent three years as the County Constabulary in Shropshire England. He was in charge of the Parkdale Station on Cowan Avenue where he ended his life.

George was definitely an Officer that would have been forgotten, as suicide was looked upon with distain. His record would have been shown as an officer of dishonour. But he must have been either very disturbed or depressed to have carried out such an act, especially as he had a wife and children to support. The docking of his wages, in a time when ‘times were hard’ could easily have been the final straw, who knows, but being a policeman in those times was not an easy job in Canada or England.

From research it appears that the some of the first police officer suicides were Policeman Leonard, who was connected with No.2 station. Around the year 1896, he walked into a lane off McCaul Street after coming off duty early in the morning, and fatally shot himself. Policeman Larkins about 1894, shot himself with fatal results, at the corner of Fredrick and Frank Street. In both cases the weapons carried by the officers were used.

Suicide of Police officers is more common around the world than we would suspect. It has in the past been regarded as “the easy way out”, a sign of “weakness” or instability. We now know that the mental stress, the emotional turmoil and the feeling of helplessness, is a human trait. We cannot know the anguish and torment of these, our brother and sister officers. All we can do is remember them.

Research by Detective Constable Colin Davies - Retired after 31 years with the Toronto Police Service