On the Death of a Cop

As Mayor Bloomberg noted last week, the decision by Emergency Services Unit Lieut. Michael Pigott to take his own life only "compounds the tragedy" that began when he ordered a subordinate to fire his Taser at a mentally ill man, causing a fall that killed him.

By all accounts, Lieutenant Pigott was a good, dedicated cop and a devoted family man. The suicide note that he left reportedly spoke of his concerns that his three children might witness him being placed under arrest and handcuffed, and later sent to prison.

One of the heartbreaking elements of his death is that if his worst fears had materialized, it would not have had as traumatic an effect upon his family as what he did.

And one of the more-dismaying news stories in the aftermath of his suicide was a piece in the New York Times in which persons connected to the Police Department stated that its culture still placed a stigma on those officers who sought psychological help, making many cops reluctant to take advantage of the counseling services it offers.

Their accounts suggested that not much has changed since 25 years ago, when the then-head of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, Phil Caruso, responded to the criticism by the head of the NYPD's Psychological Services Unit about lack of a paid union benefit for such counseling that it was because his members believed seeking such counseling in-house could harm their reputations and their careers.

We ask police officers to run towards the trouble that others would flee, and to intervene in situations where there may be no physical danger but what they witness has to take an acute psychological toll. It takes emotional as well as physical strength to perform such tasks well, but even the strongest of people are likely to become vulnerable at some point over what they are exposed to on a regular basis.

When that happens, it is important that they have a viable outlet. Often people — ordinary citizens as well as police officers — have difficulty talking about that type of vulnerability to friends or family or work colleagues. It is important that those within the NYPD — from the top of 1 Police Plaza to cops on the street — realize that officers' opting to seek professional counseling is not a mark of weakness but an affirmative step to making themselves stronger.

In the days following his death, there were some cops who blamed top NYPD officials or the news media for creating the climate that drove Lieutenant Pigott to take his own life. These were emotional responses to what he himself cited as the pressures he felt in the days following the death of Iman Morales, the man who fell head-first from a height when he was hit by the Taser, suffering fatal injuries.

Mr. Pigott believed that 21 years of exemplary police work — the last six in ESU — was being disregarded by both the department and the media. Yet the circumstances of Mr. Morales's death made it hard to imagine significantly different responses by those parties.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly had characterized as "a mistake" Lieutenant Pigott's order to use the Taser at a time when there was nothing on the ground to cushion Mr. Morales's fall. It was clearly a violation of department guidelines for use of the stun gun, which has an immobilizing effect that ensured that Mr. Morales would be unable to do anything to break his fall.

One unidentified ESU officer who wasn't at the scene had been quoted by the New York Post as saying that it was possible that Lieutenant Pigott was concerned that one officer who was confronting Mr. Morales from a second-floor fire escape might fall if he was struck by a long light tube that the mentally ill man was swinging. It was unclear, however, why that officer couldn't have merely stepped back to a more-secure spot. An inflatable bag to break Mr. Morales's fall was being brought to the scene, and there was no imminent danger posed by waiting until it arrived.

The news media coverage presented to readers and viewers was not over the top. The camping out of the media near Mr. Pigott's home was undoubtedly disturbing, but it is par for the course in such cases.

The head of his union, Lieutenants Benevolent Association President Tom Sullivan, told this newspaper that it bothered Mr. Pigott "that the department reacted so quickly to discipline him without even speaking to him." But that posture was dictated by the circumstances of the case: Mr. Kelly responded to what he concluded was an error in judgment that violated NYPD guidelines, and department investigators did not seek to talk to Mr. Pigott in deference to a probe by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office to determine whether criminal charges should be brought. One additional irony was that, subsequent to his death, it was reported that the case was unlikely to result in an indictment, meaning Mr. Pigott would not have faced the indignity of being placed under arrest in front of his children.

But regardless of whether he faced such charges, Lieutenant Pigott knew that his career as an ESU commander, if not in the NYPD itself, had ended with his tragic miscalculation. For someone who took such pride in his job — enough that he had stayed on after he could have retired at full pension — that, too, may have seemed unbearable.

We wish his good acts over his career and away from the job had made him realize that his was a life worth living, and that he had the capacity to redeem it from one grievous error.

May he rest in peace.