Survivors of Blue Suicide — Free Peer Support for LE Suicide Loss Families
Survivors of Blue Suicide Foundation (SBS) is a nonprofit specifically supporting the families and coworkers of law enforcement officers who have died by suicide. Founded by people who have lived this particular loss, SBS provides peer support, family connection, education, and a community where survivors of blue suicide can speak about their experience without the institutional silences that often surround this kind of loss. The Foundation serves families of active law enforcement officers — and officers retired for one year or less — who have died by suicide anywhere in the U.S. and its territories.
What to Expect
SBS’s family support includes direct peer connection between newly bereaved families and SBS volunteers who have themselves lost a law enforcement loved one to suicide. The Foundation offers compassionate communication that doesn’t require the family to explain or justify the loss — peer supporters understand the institutional context, the public-facing pressures, the workplace dynamics, and the particular kinds of questions that arise after a police suicide. SBS also runs educational programming for departments, advocates for benefit and policy changes, and builds the broader community of law enforcement suicide loss survivors so families don’t have to find each other alone.
Who This Group Is For
SBS serves the family and coworkers of any active law enforcement officer — or officer retired within one year — who has died by suicide in the U.S. or its territories. Family includes spouses, partners, children, parents, siblings, and other close relatives. Coworkers, partners on the job, and department members who have lost a colleague are also welcomed. The narrow eligibility (recent loss, active or recently retired officer) reflects SBS’s focus on serving families during the most acute period of bereavement.
Why Peer Support Works
Law enforcement suicide carries particular layers of stigma, institutional silence, and unanswered questions that often make conventional grief support feel inadequate. SBS’s family-to-family model creates space for honest conversation among people who have walked the same road — talking about the department’s response, the public coverage, the children’s questions, and the long arc of grief in a way that civilian-led grief services usually can’t. Many SBS families describe their connection with another survivor family as the turning point in their grieving.
How to Join
SBS services are free. Visit survivorsofbluesuicide.org to request family support, learn about programs, contact peer supporters, and access resources. Families can also engage as peer supporters once they are further along in their own grieving — supporting others has become a meaningful path for many SBS survivors.