Suicide by cop

Suicide by cop, also known as suicide by police or law-enforcement-assisted suicide, is a term used to define deaths caused by police as suicides. The alleged phenomenon, described in sources written by, or sympathetic to, the police involves a person deliberately behaving in a threatening manner with intent to provoke police or other law enforcement officers to kill the allegedly suicidal person. The concept arose in the United States. In the United States, over 1,365 people were killed by police in 2024. The terminology has now spread to other places such as Canada and Australia.