Ald. Maria Hadden’s cooling ordinance is intended to prevent a repeat of the three heat-related deaths at James Sneider Apartments in Hadden’s Rogers Park ward.
The Finance Committee OK’d an ordinance that would grant to surviving spouses of police officers and firefighters who have died by suicide since Jan. 1, 2018 the same benefits afforded to families of first-responders killed in the line of duty.
Chicago lawmakers are taking a closer look at the growing problem of suicide among the city’s first responders, and are taking steps to help provide families.
The push for the suicide benefits ordinance, which would be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2018, included pleas from two women whose husbands took their own lives after serving a combined 30 years on the Chicago Police Department.
likely among officers, one out of 15 experience depression, death by suicide 54% higher for officers than general population so the numbers bear out what you might anecdotally think, these are linked, very tough jobs. officers often are found using their service weapons to take their own life, so we have a system where you have officers exposed to disturbing and traumatic experiences and sometimes for reasons that relate to resources, culture or our general society not getting the tools that may help them, a writer sdpesed if we reimagine police by hiring more social workers, for example, more money to affordable housing may ease the burden on some officers and the community at large. now, this isn t just a report of kwhapd, it s also what can happen, a city for example has a pilot program of mental health assistance for officers after three were lost to suicide this year, two chicago officers, 47-year-old james daley, jeffrey