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.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a majority of police officers face a risk of alcohol abuse, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, and one in four have considered suicide.
Stacy Escamilla and Julie Troglia shared their emotional stories with the Chicago Sun-Times in hope that it might embolden their colleagues to seek help before they reach the breaking point.
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.