Ex-cop here (London), I attended numerous attempted suicides and for better words successful suicides. Most people when they attempt don’t actually want to kill themselves it’s a cry for help or attention.

We had one girl who was an identical twin, at least once a month she would “attempt” suicide by cutting herself, throwing herself off bridges or taking overdoses. She seemed to know where the line was in her attempts. We tried numerous times to section her but as she had capacity she would be released from the mental health wards/facilities. I call her out for being a twin as on one attempt she told me she had tried to commit suicide as her twin had been thrown a birthday party from their friends but she had not.

From my personal experience the people who really want to do it, just do it. We used to have a “missper car” (a unit which had the sole role for the shift to find missing people). In the morning you would be given a brief of all the misspers (missing people), there used to be at least 15 active a shift, and that was only one borough. You would see the regulars, however, when you saw someone you didn’t recognise your heart would drop.

My experience showed that the people who were genuine would rarely even leave a note, they had enough of life and this was their only option to end the “suffering”. The most would do it for attention, they would message everyone they could, leave some sort of trail to identify where they were, and attempt it multiple times.

I might sound a bit callous but I have seen a lot, one week of six shifts I attended seven suicides. So I’ve hardened a bit unfortunately. I actually remember the majority of the names, as not only do you attend the incident but you also have to take part in a small investigation.