FREE PRESS
How Can You Be a Cop in a City That Hates You?
Olivia Reingold
May 7, 2025

“They treat cops like tissues. They just throw us away.” That is how Rick Nigro, a retired sergeant, describes Chicago after nearly three decades on its police force. “You ever hear about firemen killing themselves? No. They’re heroes. They’re idolized,” added Sergeant Nigro. “We’re the pariahs of the civil service.” In March 2021, after Officer James Daly, an acquaintance of Nigro, committed suicide, he wrote then-mayor Lori Lightfoot a letter “We are woefully unprepared to deal with the physical human stress that it takes upon us,” he wrote. A local TV station picked up news of his letter, and Lightfoot released a statement promising “to ensure that Chicago’s police officers feel supported and valued.” Later that week, another officer—Jeffrey Troglia, a father of three—fatally shot himself in his basement. By the end of the year, Nigro himself retired. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Police suicide epidemic continues to grip Long Island as cops confirm body found on Nassau beach If an autopsy confirms the self-inflicted killing, it would mark the seventh police officer to commit suicide in New York state this year. At its current pace, the state is on track to see more than 20 police suicides by the end of 2025 — far surpassing 2024’s total of 13.