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By Michael Wilson and Cara Buckley
The New York Times
NEW YORK — The posters are hung throughout police headquarters, beside cheerful announcements of retirements and reminders of blood drives.
“Cops rid the streets of murderers, drug dealers, thieves, and all too often themselves,” the posters read. “If you’re a cop in need of help, call the N.Y.P.D. Early Intervention Hotline.”
Counseling within the Police Department is offered as a voluntary option for troubled officers and, in some cases, is mandatory, said Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman. But counseling remains among the most underused tools in a police officer’s arsenal, the result of an age-old stigma within the department against psychiatry in general.
Lt. Michael W. Pigott, who killed himself on Thursday morning after having ordered the fatal Taser shooting of a man on a ledge Sept. 24, was required to receive counseling within the Police Department, said Philip E. Karasyk, a lawyer for the Lieutenants Benevolent Association.