The study was conducted primarily to determine whether the incidence of suicide is higher among sworn police officers than among the general public and to produce a profile or guide for supervisors and command personnel to identify officers with suicidal tendencies. The listing of personnel who died in 1977-79 was compared with the files of the office of the medical examiner. Each officer's death recorded as a medical examiner's case was investigated. Twenty police officers committed suicide, indicating that during the period studied, a Chicago police officer was five times more likely to commit suicide than a citizen in the city's general population. Alcoholism was documented in 12 cases. Records of the officers indicated physical symptoms commonly associated with alcoholism, including cirrhosis of the liver, organic brain syndrome, stomach problems, and flu-type systems related to 'hangover' and delerium tremens. Many officer behavior patterns were also common to alcoholism. Thus, alcoholism and attendant symptoms may be one of the clues indicating suicidal tendencies in officers, requiring intervention by supervisory personnel. Individual case descriptions of the 20 subjects are provided. Twenty-three footnotes are included.