Amid an epidemic of officer suicides, the NYPD’s recent calls for stressed-out cops to “Please reach out” for help is nothing more than “smoke and mirrors,” according to an officer who said he was publicly stripped of his gun and reassigned the day after revealing he was on antidepressants.
Twelve-year veteran NYPD Officer Jonathan Oliveras said he was made an outcast after admitting in August he’d obtained mental-health treatment.
“I would have just been better if I kept my mouth shut,” Oliveras told The Post in an emotional interview detailing the nearly unbearable fallout from the job after confessing to a rough patch — despite being in treatment.
“When they took my gun, the way they did it, they called the desk and they told them they coming in to take my firearm so they need someone to go to my locker … the whole command knew.”
It only got worse over the next two months, as he was transferred five times, placed on modified duty with no path back to becoming a full officer and currently stuck in a post where the department hides the cop who screw up.
The stress has affected his marriage and triggered crippling anxiety attacks — and he’s drinking again.
Oliveras’ experience — which came as the NYPD struggles to change rank-and-file culture amid a spate of 10 officer suicides this year — is exactly what keeps cops from coming forward for help.
A report from the city’s Department of Investigation last month, which polled NYPD retirees, found that many of the officers who considered seeking treatment never followed through because they believed it could negatively affect their career.
Oliveras, a 40-year-old Iraq War vet, has struggled with PTSD and twice sought help for alcohol abuse from the department — which put him into rehab and AA meetings without taking his gun or making him into a pariah.
But it was another story entirely when he admitted to taking legally prescribed medication.
On Aug. 18 Oliveras told an NYPD surgeon he couldn’t work that day because recent stress from home had caused his Crohn’s disease to flare up. When asked what medication he was on, he admitted he was prescribed a moderate dose of Prozac.
Before he knew it, he was made to talk to an NYPD psychiatrist — and the next day his gun was taken away.
“I should have lied … I should just have said I have relapsed,” he said, explaining that he told the psychiatrist he was stressed out and already seeing a therapist.
That was less than a week after a pair of high-profile officer suicides. Veteran NYPD cop Robert Echeverria killed himself inside his Queens home on Aug. 14. The day before, 35-year-old Bronx cop Johnny Rios fatally shot himself in his Yonkers home.
Oliveras said he’s shy to flash his badge without a gun because of the stigma.
“This shows I’m a police officer but I have no gun. I feel I’m a failure … like a s–t bag.”
Oliveras said there is a double-standard in the department — he remained full-duty and kept his gun and badge in 2015 while taking Percocets and Oxycontin following an on-the-job crash, though the pills have long been linked to the nation’s opioid epidemic, he said.
Retired NYPD psychologist Tom Coghlan said Oliveras’ story is one he heard all too often during his eight years with the department and four years as a liaison for the Police Organization Providing Peer Assistance.
He blamed a “terrible” policy that requires officers submit to fitness-for-duty evaluations whenever they disclose they are on psych-altering medication — a measure Coghlan says is meant to protect the department and not officers.
“[Oliveras] told the truth … so telling the truth under this policy gets you punished. You can’t have a mixed message. We want you to seek help, we want you to come forward, but if they come forward … if you disclose it to the surgeon, you can be disciplined,” Coghlan said.
“You have people at the highest levels making mental-health policies that have zero mental-health background, so the department’s mental-health services are designed to mimic the disciplinary policies,” he said.
An NYPD spokeswoman said the department doesn’t require officers to report any mental health medication, but if the job finds out, the medical department will order a psychological evaluation.
“The decision to remove a firearm is carefully evaluated on a case-by-case basis — last year less than 10 percent were removed to protect the well-being of the officer and in over 90 percent of cases, officers received them back within six months,” the spokeswoman said. Police announced last week that cops could get free confidential counseling at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center after critics said the city’s health insurance made it tough to get professional help.
Coghlan said it was a “shame” that the department treats self-medication through alcohol less seriously than the act of seeking mental-health treatment.
“It’s OK to be a drunk, it’s not OK to be crazy,” said Coghlan recalling what he’d been told by a cop years ago who had severe drinking caused by underlying mental illness.
“We shouldn’t be promoting a culture where you can self-medicate and get away with that instead of coming forward for mental health treatment.”
Oliveras conceded that a recent policy shift allowing officers to keep their badges as they seek treatment has made his work in Central Booking less stressful.
“They treat you with more respect … having this shield,” he said. “The supervisors … they treat you better. So I’m more comfortable at the location.”
But for Oliveras, telling the department only made things worse at a time when he was already struggling, and he still expects to be forced out in a year without any clear plan to get his gun back.
“This has to be fixed for the next guy,” he said. “I was going to my therapist and I spoke to my psychiatrist. I was going to my AA meetings, I was full duty, I was working the night shift and I was fine … I went to work, I was productive.”
“I was being a cop and when they took that away, that all stopped.”
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