To Serve and Protect

Midway Police Department - 2014

My first real encounter with the police was when I was 16 years old and working at a hotel.  Two men came in wearing ski masks, pointing a gun at me, making me get down on the floor as they robbed the cash drawer.  I was forced to walk out of the hotel and walk towards the back while they ran the opposite way.  By the time I made it back into the office to call the police I couldn’t even remember 911 – I instead called the police department number that was taped to the telephone.  Officers were there within minutes, making sure I was ok, searching the area, taking reports.  The guys who robbed me were eventually caught and are most likely still in jail.  In that moment of need, the police was there for me.

The second time I needed the police was after my first car accident; I ran into the back of another car, it was late at night and I didn’t notice the car in front of me was turning onto a dirt driveway off the main road.  It was loud and scary and being 17, I had no idea what to do.  Luckily someone who lived nearby heard the crash and called the police for me.  Again, they were there within minutes, reassuring me everything would be ok.  There were many more accidents of which the police did the same thing for me, although all other times it was NOT my fault.

An officer had to come by the house once to do a report after my car was broken into while in the driveway.  Most recently I had called the station to have an officer make sure nobody was outside my office at 11 at night after I heard really strange noises.  The officer, after searching the area, waited in the parking lot for me to close everything down to ensure I made it to my car safely.

Yes, I have even had a few officers pull me over from everything from not wearing a seat belt, headlight, taillights, and even speeding.  Every one of these instances fall within a cops job requirements and that is only touching on a few things.  Their job contains so much more.  They are the ones putting themselves between the innocent and the dangerous, many times knowing that they may not make it out of the situation injury free and they do it every day. 

Cops are not the bad guys, yes there are a few bad apples, but there are bad apples everywhere.  Most of these officers are selfless, caring, and honorable.  One officer in particular is the apple of my eye; I have seen the many selfless acts he does, have seen the way he has taken care of a situation leaving everyone peaceful, and I have seen the way some calls have left him brokenhearted.  He has helped people in need along with helping people who got themselves in sticky situations find a way out of the hole they dug for themselves. He is one of the most loyal and honorable people I know…my husband. 

My husband has been a police officer for over 20 years and over those years he has learned a lot about his job and people.  He uses that knowledge to teach others how to stay alive as they do their jobs as well.  He sacrifices his free time to help others learn what to watch out for on traffic stops, how to be one step ahead of everyone else, how to shoot to keep them alive, how to deflect a dangerous situation to a more positive situation.  He trains himself to remain alert so when he is in dangerous situations he will still be able to come home that night. 

Some people forget that there are people behind those badges and those people are mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters – they have a life outside of their job just as every other profession.  People fail to realize if they are on the receiving end of one of the negative aspects of a cops job, it was them who put themselves in those situations, not the officer’s. 

Many people are unaware that this week is National Police Week; a week to honor those men and women who risk their lives daily to serve and protect others.  There are some who give no thought what so ever to the men and women behind the badge just as there are some people who do whatever they can to cause trouble for those officers, and there are some who love and respect those officers for everything they do. 

For those of you who show your appreciation to these officers, thank you!  For those of you who make a cop’s job harder, PLEASE, have a heart to heart with yourself and figure out what you really have a problem with, because I highly doubt the officer is the root of your problems.

I challenge everyone to show some compassion, put yourself in these officers’ shoes and ask yourself, how you would feel doing their job, ask yourself what you can learn from these men and women.  These officers wake up every morning put on a badge knowing it may be the last time they walk out of the house but praying it’s not.  

A POLICE OFFICER'S PRAYER

Lord I ask for courage

Courage to face and
Conquer my own fears...

Courage to take me
Where others will not go...

I ask for strength

Strength of body to protect others
And strength of spirit to lead others...

I ask for dedication

Dedication to my job, to do it well
Dedication to my community
To keep it safe...

Give me Lord, concern
For others who trust me
And compassion for those who need me...

And please Lord

Through it all
Be at my side...

 To those of you who serve and protect, Thank You!  You may never know what a difference you really make. 


Other posts:
Being a Cops Wife
Fear of Single Parenthood

Heroes

There are a lot of things about September 11th that brings tears to my eyes; the many people who died the ones who were left behind, the motherless and fatherless children, and even knowing that there is such evil in the world to send the attack in the first place. I hate seeing others in pain, I hate knowing that people suffer, and I hate that there are so many people ungrateful for what they have.

So many people go through life and don’t give any thought to what is happening to keep them safe. I’ve had this conversation with my husband many times, although he is a lot more opinioned than I am on this subject. When the whole TSA pat down debate was going on I’d asked my husband if he would let them pat down our daughter if we were to fly somewhere. He shocked me with his answer – “yes” and he further explained that going through the proper security is what keeps us safe (granted he had a lot more to say about this but that would be a whole other blog). It got me thinking, a small inconvenience is worth making sure thousands of people don’t lose their lives again.

Hundreds of thousands of families are split up each year because one parent, or in some cases both parents, are deployed in the military to fight for our freedom. My heart goes out to these families every day because I know it is hard to be so far away from the ones you love, especially when they are in very dangerous places, putting everyone else’s lives above their own. The military volunteer to join, they join knowing they could die so that so many others can live. Just this fact alone makes them amazing people.

The people in the military are not the only ones to go to work protecting us; the police officers and firefighters do the same thing. More often than not, the police officers are overlooked for the jobs they do. Every morning they wake up, put their uniforms on, and go to work with the disadvantage of not knowing what the day holds for them. They could have a day where they do nothing but drive around and the next day they could be fighting for their lives.

The police and firefighters on September 11th did not go to work that day expecting to get the calls they got; they did not expect to running into the buildings that everyone else were running away from – but they did. They took charge of everything they could; they saved so many lives and lost so many of their own. They didn’t put themselves in danger because it was their job, they did it because that is who they are; Heroes! It is the people such as these that make me feel so proud. It’s not only the ones in New York, but everywhere because had the attack happened in any city there would be the same type of person putting their lives in danger to save another.

I wish everyone could see the good these men and woman do every day and not only on the anniversary of September 11th – don’t give them such a hard time because they wrote you a ticket because YOU were breaking the law. It has taken me a long time to realize that these men and women are doing their jobs to keep you and others safe and a ticket is just that – a ticket, but if you were ever in any danger they would be the first ones to come to your aid; putting their lives at risk to save yours.

Being the wife of a cop I face the same fate of those New York families, one day my husband may not come home from work because he put someone else’s life above his own. He, along with every other police officer and firefighter, has my upmost respect and it is not only on one day of the year – it is all year long.