Attorney General Barr opens up on daughter’s cancer scare in talk with law enforcement

Attorney General William Barr has noted with concern over the past year the rising number of police officer suicides in the country. On Thursday, he shared a personal story about a “godsend” social worker who helped his family during his daughter’s cancer battle as he reminded law enforcement that it’s OK to seek out and accept help.

“I think, though, there are probably many reasons that underlie the suicide problem we’re facing. I think this is one of them, this reluctance to come forward because you view yourself — people in law enforcement and veterans view themselves as not really needing any help and support,” Barr told a gathering of police officers in Miami.

“But everyone goes through a period where they have some difficulty and could use support,” he said.

The attorney general described how a social worker assigned by the Boston hospital where his youngest daughter Meg was being treated for cancer a few years ago had impacted his family in the wrenching period.

Barr said he initially had a “knee jerk reaction” to reject the help from the social worker. “My immediate impulse was, ‘Hey, we’re a strong family, we don’t need a social worker,'” he recalled.

But the social worker’s help turned out to be immense.

“She was one of the greatest things to happen to us during this six month period when we were up in Boston,” Barr said. “We’ve become very close friends, our family and her, and she is just a godsend.”

At least 228 police officers died from suicide last year, marking a 33% increase from the year before, according to Blue H.E.L.P., a nonprofit. Barr has made boosting morale and the suicide crisis a central part of his regular speeches to law enforcement groups, though Thursday appeared to be the first time he recounted his own experience with professional support.

In 2012, Barr’s third daughter, Meg, a former prosecutor and now a counsel for Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, learned that her Hodgkin’s lymphoma had relapsed. Barr, then in private practice, moved with his wife to Boston to support her through chemotherapy and stem-cell transplants.

Barr has said that the cancer battle will dwarf any fight he faces as attorney general. “If it’s not about my daughter’s being mortally ill, it’s nothing,” said in an interview ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing last year.

In his speech Thursday, Barr said that he had spoken with the secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure that law enforcement could benefit from a study that the agency was doing on suicide among veterans.

Barr also described what he called a “deeply troubling attitude toward police” that he said was making their jobs “more difficult than its ever been before.”

“Far from respecting the men and women who put their lives on the line to protect us, it is becoming common in some quarters to scapegoat the police and to disrespect police officers and disparage the vital role played by law enforcement in our society,” he said.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to accurately quote William Barr.