NYPD: New tablet for officer deaths attributed to 9/11 illnesses
The NYPD is expected to unveil a new tablet at 1 Police Plaza's Hall of Heroes, above in May, for names of additional police officers whose deaths were related to their work after the 9/11 attacks. Credit: Jeff Bachner
The NYPD’s Hall of Heroes in Manhattan will add a new memorial tablet for a steadily climbing list of police officers who have died from illnesses attributed to their work after the Sept. 11 attacks, officials said.
An existing vertical tablet in the memorial hall commemorating those lost on Sept. 11, 2001 and in the months after, has room for 160 names. But because of a spike in police officer deaths from related illnesses in recent years, the tablet has room only for six more names.
Given that 23 officers have died so far this year from illnesses related to the terror attacks, more space is needed, said NYPD Lt. Michael Ryan, who is coordinating the project and has been involved in maintaining the memorials for more than a decade.
The new bronze tablet will occupy wall space in the hall directly opposite the existing tablet. Eleven other tablets grace the hall inside the lobby of 1 Police Plaza.
All of them commemorate more than 900 officers who have died in the line of duty from as far back as 1849. In a ceremony set for Wednesday, the NYPD will add the names of 17 more officers whose deaths while on the job were unrelated to Sept. 11 and stretch back to 1869.
“There is a lot of thought that goes into this,” said Ryan, who works for First Deputy Commissioner Benjamin Tucker. “I know most of this stuff off the top of my head. I have been handling it for the department since 2006.”
Initially, Ryan, began working with the Sept. 11 names while in the NYPD’s personnel office. He continued with it after starting in Tucker’s office.
“It is hard to just walk away from it too, because it means so much,” said Ryan, a Long Island resident.
The memorial tablets and walls are an important part of the city’s history, said John Feal of Nesconset, who runs The FealGood Foundation, a nonprofit group helping first responders suffering from illnesses related to their work at Ground Zero and other locations.
“It is vital that the story is still told 16-years later,” Feal said in a telephone interview. “They are pages in a chapter of a book. The book is not over. People are still suffering and dying.”
To make wall space for the new tablet, the NYPD will consolidate two existing ones honoring some of the officers who died in the 19th and 20th Centuries, Ryan said.
From 2003 to 2016, a total of 132 line-of-duty deaths were linked to illnesses from rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero, according to the NYPD. Officials traditionally add new names to the hall in May on Peace Officers Memorial Day.
Last May 5, Police Commissioner James O’Neill and Mayor Bill de Blasio presided at the service where 34 names — 33 from Sept. 11 duty — were added.
The new Sept. 11 tablet is expected to be finished and ready for installation before the May, 2018 ceremony, Ryan said.
It remains unclear how many deaths in the future of police officers and other first responders will be attributed to work after the attacks, NYPD officials said.
But based on the number of 9/11 deaths in recent years, the number has averaged about nine a year.
“Unfortunately, because it’s the nature of the business,” Ryan said, “you have to leave space for the future.”
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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