COPLINE: 1-800-COPLINE
1-800-267-5463

Who We Are

Serving Your Community

GOD Bless Our Peacemakers

Our Mission

GOD Bless Our Peacemakers

COPLINE offers a CONFIDENTIAL 24-hour hotline answered by retired law enforcement officers who have gone through a strenuous vetting and training process to become an active listener. Copline peer listeners provide assistance with the successful management of various psychosocial stressors that impact a significant number of law enforcement officers and their families. Should the caller need further assistance the peer listener has access to vetted clinical referrals to therapists and programs throughout our callers regions to further assist with ongoing stressors.
Copline is the first INTERNATIONAL law enforcement officers' hotline that is manned by retired law enforcement officers. Retired law enforcement officers are trained in active listening and bring the knowledge and understanding of the many psychosocial stressors that officers go through both on and off the job. Active/Retired officers and/or their families can call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and be assured that there is a trained retired officer on the other end of the line whether the caller is calling while on duty or off. The line is strictly confidential, the caller can remain anonymous and there is no fear of punitive repercussions from initiating the call.

THE FACTS

Law Enforcement research shows:

  • Avoidance of non-police persons by police may affect the level of needed support during a psychological crises because it interferes with establishing a helping network.
    - Violanti et al (2018)

  • PTSD and increased alcohol use led to a tenfold increased risk of suicidal ideation.
    - Violent, Charles, et al (2008)

  • 83% of suicides appeared to be related to personal problems
    - O’Hara, Violanti, Levenson & Clark ( 2013)

  • 13% of suicides were work associated problems
    - O’Hara, Violanti, Levenson & Clark (2013)
  • 11% were military veterans
    - O’Hara, Violanti, Levenson & Clark (2013)

  • Multiple studies showed PTSD and suicidality along with meditating factors such as depression are contributing factors to suicide.
    - Spinaris (2016) Spinaris, Denhof & Kellaway (2012)

  • PTSD and alcohol use was studied in a sample of International police personnel and concluded that traumatic incidents, coping, and stressors interacted significantly with drinking.
    - Menard & Arter (2013)

  • History of childhood sexual abuse prior to the job plays a significant role in substance abuse & suicidal ideation.
    - Samuels (2017), Violanti & Samuels (2007)

TARGET AUDIENCE

Copline is the first INTERNATIONAL law enforcement officers hotline that is manned by retired law enforcement officers. The highest suicide rates in law enforcement are in rural areas in deep undercover operations. The officers are isolated from the ones they love and take on a persona that is needed to survive in the element they are working in. It is imperative that the officers feel there is a safe place to call and get someone who can understand what they are going through. Many officers do not see the changes in their own personalities over time; it is the ones closest to the officer. Our hotline will also be a safe place for spouses, significant others and children to call and speak with someone that can help them understand.

SUCCESSES

Copline has been highlighted in the National Fraternal Order of Police newspaper as well as in many papers locally throughout the Country. Stephanie Samuels, the creator and Founder of Copline, has spoken at the American Police Beat Conference at Harvard Law School Labor and Work life Program and has been featured in the American Police Beat Magazine. Each month, over 200 calls and emails from volunteers have come into Copline. Florida has created a law enforcement officer’s suicide prevention task force which Copline has been recognized by as being part of the solution to the problem. COPLINE was recently listed under available Crisis Lines for Law Enforcement in the Department of Justice Law Enforcement Mental Health and Wellness Act-Report to Congress, March 2019. COPLINE is the only not-for-profit organization that was mentioned in the report to Congress.
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