Remembering 9/11 — After the attacks

BUFFALO — When Sean Bissett remembers serving as a police officer in Baltimore on Sept. 11, 2001, he still gets chills.

Now more than 25 years into his law enforcement career, on 9/11 the Buffalo Police Department chief had been out of the Baltimore Police Academy for less than two years. It was a Tuesday in early fall, and he had been golfing on his day off with some colleagues. On their way into the clubhouse to grab food, they passed an older man in the parking lot.

“(He) said ‘Hey, did you hear we’re under attack?’ And we just kind of looked at him, like ‘What is he talking about?” Bissett said.

Inside the clubhouse, the TV was already showing the aftermath of the first plane’s collision into the World Trade Center. Using a phone inside the building, he and his colleagues called the Baltimore County Police Department’s Towson precinct and “got to work.” 

“Everybody was mandatory call-in, and, of course, the second plane had just hit the tower,” he said.

“When you first saw it was ‘Oh my God, this is such a horrific accident,’” Bissett added. “And then, of course, when the second one hit, then all bets were off.” 

Planes had crashed east, north and south of the precinct: Baltimore County sat in the middle of New York City, Washington D.C. and the Pennsylvania field where United Airlines Flight 93 had been redirected in a passenger revolt. Channels of information between law enforcement agencies were limited.

“We didn’t have the lines of communication that we have today. I mean, 9/11 changed the way public safety (functioned),” he recalled. “Everything that they used in New York was on those towers. All their radio traffic, everything, is on top of the two tallest buildings in (the city),” he said. “So they go down, then of course, all the phone traffic — everything. You just couldn’t get through.”

After the attacks, Bissett was working 48 hours at a time for two weeks, sleeping roughly six hours in between back-to-back shifts guarding a government building in Baltimore. Law enforcement tried to anticipate further attacks wherever possible: Water infrastructure was under surveillance. They watched out for anything other than U.S. fighter jets in the sky. The Baltimore World Trade Center was a location of particular concern. At one point, the police department began asking various other agencies for volunteers to bus up to New York, where they would assist with recovery or calls for service.

On top of it all, police officers were still covering normal calls for service in Baltimore County. Bissett responded to an armed robbery and a stolen-vehicle chase in between his time guarding buildings.

“It was just a crazy time,” he said. “We didn’t know really what to expect, but as a new officer, it was definitely an experience that I’ll never, ever forget.”

As cliche as he said it sounds, Bissett’s pull to law enforcement was a calling: From a young age, he knew he wanted to pursue a career in public service. Furthermore, he had an uncle who served in the Baltimore Police Department.

The second oldest of four boys, he grew up in a household with two working parents who he said “did a great job raising (him).” Bissett’s childhood experiences ingrained in him the value of hard work. As a former busboy, he believes everybody should work in a restaurant once in their life to understand the laborious nature of the service industry.

“I had to work for everything I ever had,” he said. “... Learning the appreciation of the dollar, hard work, I mean, that’s all — I give that to my parents.”

Bissett grew up with a deep respect for firefighters, police, military forces, teachers, nurses and other people in public service roles. His first inkling of a call to law enforcement, though, came to the surface when he was in second or third grade. At a career day in school, one of his classmates’ dads came in to talk about his job as a police officer.

“Like every kid, you see the uniform and all the cool things …, (but) I like the fact that I’m not behind a desk 24/7, that I can be out in the community. I’m solving problems, helping people in their absolute worst,” he said.

“This isn’t a job,” he said. “It’s a career, and it’s a lifestyle.”

After completing some college, he was accepted into the Baltimore Police Academy. Of about 6,000 applicants, 62 were selected from an admissions process that took between eight months and a year.

The academy was “very paramilitary,” he said. The first week of enrollment, prospective law enforcement officers wore a suit and tie before eventually graduating into police training gear. The next week, they put on their uniforms for the first time.

“I’ll never forget my captain saying, when we walked in, and we all were sitting there in our blues and he said, ‘Do you feel different today?’ and everybody kind of just looked around. He was, like, ‘You should. When you looked in that mirror and saw that uniform, you should have a different feeling,’” Bissett recalled.

And he did feel different. 

“And it was. It was true, and so I think 9/11 just solidified that decision I made.It just made me proud to be an American,” he said. “To be part of this country, and to help make it better.”

After September 11, first responders were lauded by Americans. Bissett said officers could walk into a convenience store to buy a drink and be met by a grateful member of the public.

“Everybody says you’ll never forget September 11, and I’ll never forget September 12,” he said. “Because the amount of patriotism and the flags — and just the time following that day, the outpouring of support for our country was amazing, and for us.”

Law enforcement was loved, and it was changing how it conducted its business. As telecommunications evolved, police departments began to prioritize sharing information to combat crimes.

One of the hijackers of Flight 93 had been pulled over two days previously by Maryland police for speeding. That man was one of four terrorists who had taken aviation courses in the U.S. in the months before the attack.

“That’s all information that the federal government might have had, and so we realized (nationally) that information sharing is absolutely key. So with the watchlists, and all the things that we do now, that changed law enforcement in the fact that the amount of information that is shared between departments — now, whether it’s federal or local, I think that’s a big deal,” he said.

Technology used by law enforcement, including automated license plate reader cameras, has evolved the way police forces operate. Local agencies are able to share their footage with one another to aid in criminal investigations.

“We’ve grown tenfold in the 25 years since (September 11),” Bissett said, “so the amount of technology that we have has also changed policing for sure.”

Much has changed for him in the 25 years since then.

While Bissett was still in Baltimore, a 25-year-old man died of a spinal cord injury in the custody of city police after being arrested for possessing a knife. Freddie Gray’s death was ruled a homicide by law enforcement.

Opposition to police brutality gained traction in the 2010s, culminating in the 2015 Baltimore protests. Riots in response to Gray’s death resulted in a state of emergency being declared in the city.

Bissett had remained in law enforcement and started a family in Maryland by then, but they left his home state for Buffalo in fall 2020. The aftermath of George Floyd’s and Breonna Taylor’s deaths that same year saw more protests nationwide. Bissett had watched public backing of law enforcement — which had been emphatic across the country when his career began — rapidly dissipate.

“We went from this level of thanks and praise and being loved to, people want to defund us now,” he said. “So that’s a little frustrating to see.”

He initially planned to retire from law enforcement upon moving to Buffalo, but Bissett missed the force at the same time former chief Jason Carder retired. In January 2022, he was sworn in as police chief.

For Bissett and his family, public opposition to the police force can be disheartening.

“Early on in my career I saw all the support, and now I see them trying to break us down, and so that’s (frustrating),” he said.

He credits his wife and daughters for the support they’ve shown over his career. Sometimes that means understanding when he leaves to respond to a call for service. At one point, he said, a car accident in which he was injured had aired on TV in front of his family.

“I give my kids a lot of credit and my wife a lot of credit for the resiliency that they have,” he said. “... They’re obviously very prideful in what I do.”

Attitudes toward law enforcement have oscillated visibly since 2001, but Bissett stands firmly by his career choice. When he talks about the selflessness of emergency responders who have died in the line of service, he said he still chokes up. The memory of how close he and his colleagues became after an experience like September 11 has stayed with him through his entire career.

“People that do what we do lose their lives doing it. I mean, it’s the biggest sacrifice you can give,” he said, “is to die for someone else.”

“I remember how close we all were, and how we all struggled with it,” Bissett added. “... When you see what the result can be of that sacrifice, it really brings you together with the (other) people that do this job.

“Regardless of what part of the country you’re in, we all had this bond, and so 9/11 just solidified that for me,” he said.

This story was published on Sept. 10, 2026. 

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