Feb 24, 2022 3 min read

Canonsburg Borough Council last week presented two police officers Distinguished Service Commendations for exemplary service.

Before council and their families, Officers Louis Bailey and Scott Kanotz were awarded for actions taken on duty Dec. 21, 2021.

“It was just one of those nights that was absolutely insane,” said Chief Alexander Coghill. “The level of police work that they did to save lives, to protect lives … was just outstanding.”

The shift began just after 8:30 p.m., when a Canonsburg resident reported a trespasser on their property.

The trespasser – a resident officers had been monitoring – was in the caller’s garage, and the situation was escalating.

“This person, over a period of a couple months, we could see the deterioration,” said Coghill. “They attacked a mental health worker. It didn’t rise to the level where we could charge them. On this night … they were having a severe mental health crisis. It’s kind of unspeakable, everything that happened. That’s the sad part.”

Bailey and Kanotz arrived on-scene and were able to, with minimal force, take the trespasser into custody. The officers worked to admit the resident into the mental health system.

“Our mental health calls are through the roof,” said Coghill. “It’s not the number of calls that are rising. It’s the seriousness.”

After filing the incident, Bailey and Kanotz received another mental health call, a suicide attempt, at a Canonsburg home.

“(The resident) was suicidal. They had a large kitchen knife. They’d severed their wrist. The (resident) has an arterial bleed; they’re going to bleed out,” Coghill said.

The officers, Coghill said, quickly applied a tourniquet and rushed the person to the hospital.

“It was fantastic the way they performed,” said Coghill. “They performed beyond the level of their training. They were calm, cool, giving clear and concise directives.”

The day after Bailey and Kanotz’s shift, Coghill met with Canonsburg Mayor Dave Rhome to discuss the back-to-back major incidents.

“These two – they do their job. They do it well,” said Rhome. “I’m proud of not only these officers, but all the officers, because people just don’t know what the men and ladies in blue go through, taking care of our people, our residents.”

Coghill said sometimes officers’ work goes unrecognized by the community, which does not always understand, witness or read about police work.

“In cases like this, the exemplary police work they did, everything they did – there’s no thank you,” Coghill added. “The only thank you comes from us, their peers. This goes unsung every day.

“I want people to know our officers are capable. Police officers are capable,” Coghill said. “They don’t get enough recognition for the things they do out there, especially every day.”