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Suicide-by-cop is a suicide method in which someone deliberately acts in a threatening way towards a law enforcement officer, with the goal of provoking a lethal response, such as being shot to death. Similar phrases include death by cop, suicide-by-police, and officer- (or police-) assisted suicide.

The phenomenon has been described in news accounts from 1981, and scientific journals since 1985, although this particular phrase did not become common until the early 1990s. The phrase seems to have originated in the United States, but also appears in an article in the British newspaper The Guardian, dated May 10, 2003. The report states that a jury in a police-shooting inquest ruled it a suicide because on the scene, the subject reportedly stated "better get your guns out lads, I'm coming out" and a suicide note was later found. Some say that the 1976 death of Mal Evans, road manager, assistant, and a friend of the Beatles, was an example of this phenomenon. Some historians believe that Giuseppe Zangara, the man who killed Chicago mayor Anton Cermak in a possible attempt to assassinate then President-Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, might have been attempting suicide by police.

Indicators include suspects that point an unloaded or non-functioning gun (such as a toy gun or starter's pistol) at officers, or otherwise act in a threatening manner. Suicide notes are obvious indicators, if present. Many law enforcement training programs have added sections to specifically address handling these situations if officers suspect that the subject is attempting to goad them into lethal force.

• Aramoana massacre
• Charles Whitman, the University of Texas tower shooter
• Kip Kinkel, a school shooter, attempted suicide-by-cop but was subdued by pepper spray instead
• Leeland Eisenberg, who took hostages in one of Hillary Clinton's campaign offices in December 2007, claimed afterwards it was an attempted suicide by cop

• In the end of the picture Tell Them Willie Boy is here, the title character (Robert Blake) tries to shoot down his pursuer Sherrif Cooper (Robert Redford). After killing the Pauite Indian, Cooper checks out the gun which turns out to be unloaded - Cooper in return retrieves Willie's body to his tribe.
• In the closing sequence of the 1970 film The Family aging mob hitman Jeff (Charles Bronson), after killing his ex-girlfriend (played by his real life wife Jill Ireland), provokes a rookie police officer to kill him.
• The 1993 film Falling Down starring Michael Douglas, ends by his character provoking Police to shoot him by threatening to have a gun, when in reality he was only carrying a toy water pistol. He chose to end his life that way so his family would still collect on his life insurance policy, which would have otherwise been voided had he committed suicide on his own.
• In the book "The Outsiders" Dallas Winston, holds up an unloaded handgun to the police that come after him after he robs a grocery store, and is gunned down immediately with a smile on his face.
• In the 2007 film Reign Over Me, Adam Sandler's character, torn by grief over the death of his family, uses an unloaded gun in an attempt to provoke two NYPD officers to kill him.
• In a season 4 episode of The West Wing, Evidence of Things Not Seen, shots are fired at the White House. The assailant is later revealed to be a mentally unbalanced man attempting suicide by cop.
• In an episode of NCIS, Kate shoots a man who points a gun at Gibbs, who calls it "classic suicide by cop".
• In the 2002 film Minority Report, Leo Crow who is earlier falsely suspected in abducting John Anderton's (played by Tom Cruise) son, commits suicide using Anderton after Leo's conspiracy and will to die in order to get money for his family is discovered by Anderton.

• John Wilkes Boothe
• Suicide crisis
• Suicide intervention
• Suicide prevention

• Results of one study of the phenomenon
• Law enforcement suicide prevention resources