An NYPD officer — stricken with cancer from 9/11 and forced to work at home — will now be tasked with solving crimes from his Long Island house with his new title of detective.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea promoted the 45-year-old cop, Ross Dichter, via Skype Wednesday morning while giving his State of The NYPD address at the annual Police Foundation breakfast.
“Amazingly, [Dichter] insists on keeping busy by continuing to crunch numbers as part of his crime analysis duties,” Shea told the crowd. “So, on any given day at home, and even during his weekly treatments at Sloan Kettering, you’ll find Officer Dichter remotely logged onto his NYPD laptop, if he’s not already on the phone with a precinct commander discussing crime patterns.”
“In fact, I bet he’s working on something like that right now — let’s check in on him,” the commissioner said before cutting to a livestream of the officer.
Dichter told The Post he was caught off guard when the commissioner put him on the spot and quizzed him on crime numbers.
“He said, ‘Since you’re the crime analysis guy, you should know everything about the numbers,’” Dichter recalled. “What does 7046 represent in the 20 in crime statistics?”
“I started to sweat,” the new detective told The Post with a chuckle.
Today, it’s my absolute honor to promote Police Officer Ross Dichter to the rank of Detective.
Ross, thank you for all your hard work and continued dedication to the people of this great city. https://t.co/YotwPRufGKpic.twitter.com/tseZrmvizJ
— Commissioner Shea (@NYPDShea) January 29, 2020
After going over the numbers in his head but coming up empty, Dichter said, he had to concede to the commissioner, “I have no idea.”
But that wasn’t the only surprise Shea had in store for the officer.
The crime number that left him stumped was his new detective shield number.
“I couldn’t believe it. The commissioner caught me so off guard, asking me a crime number that I couldn’t figure out … I know those numbers. I couldn’t make it out,” Dichter recalled.
A 21-year veteran, Dichter was off on Sept. 11, 2001, having just gotten married.
“I turned on the news, me and my friend — another cop — we drove in together and went right to work. I started at Ground Zero on Sept. 13,” he recalled, saying he worked there every day until Christmas.
The cancer didn’t appear until Feb. 13, 2019.
“I got the worst call, ‘You have aggressive tongue cancer,'” Dichter said.
The disease started to spread to his neck and lungs, despite multiple operations, and Dicther started “pretty heavy chemo” last October when he began working from home. Doctors recently said his cancer was shrinking.
Dichter credits his wife for being his rock during the ordeal — but urged all his family in blue who were at Ground Zero to get a 9/11 screening.
“It could save your life,” he said. “This screening, I’ve been going to for many years. This is how I found this. This could have saved my life. If you’re not feeling well, there’s no reason not to.”
