I have a few random thoughts that aren’t long enough for a column, but I hold onto them anyway, because you just never know. I thought I’d share a few with you. Comments? Feel free to drop me a line at my email address to the left. I receive emails from many of you all the time and have established some pretty great friendships with fellow LEOs this way.
- Technology improves and expands the capabilities of crime fighters both on and off the road and helps level the playing field. I’ve been outspoken about how important I believe body cams are and we’ve seen case after case where an officer’s body cam has protected him or her from scurrilous accusations. In one recent case originating from Alabama, a woman arrested for DWI claimed that the arresting officer raped her. The body cam he wore told a different story and she’s now charged with filing a false report. Body cams work to our benefit.
- Speaking of filing false reports, I wish more departments would charge those who file one. There’s a general feeling that in some cases, bringing charges against a complainant who lies when reporting a crime could come back to haunt the agency. That’s where an intelligent assessment of the false report should come in. Is the evidence strong? Has the case eaten up many man hours or impugned the integrity of the agency and its personnel? There’s often a general fear in these cases that bona fide victims will fail to step forward after seeing someone prosecuted for reporting a fake crime, but I don’t think agencies will go after fakers unless there’s damning proof. Simply suspecting a false report wouldn’t be sufficient. The evidence must be clear-cut and compelling.
- I’m not a big fan of politics, especially considering the terrible divide in this country over left versus right, and I’ve about had it with friends sending me stuff they’ve found on the internet that’s reflective of their own philosophies. But I’m cautiously optimistic that official attitudes towards law enforcement are evolving under this new administration. What I’ve seen and heard so far encourages me to believe things will turn around and law enforcement can once again do their jobs without being at an immediate disadvantage. I hope I’m right.
- I’m always amused at the “stranger than fiction” LEO reports carried by the media. What they think of as strange, we consider just another day at the office. Strange and quirky crimes committed by strange and quirky people are pretty much par for the course in this business. And that’s precisely what makes it so fascinating. Who else goes to work and saves a life or climbs up in someone’s attic or chases a guy over several city blocks or arrests someone who is naked and thinks little of it because it’s all in a day’s work? Although civilians may find the oddities strange, cops see them as the same thing they did last week. Police work never gets old. It’s interesting, challenging and many times crammed with stories you couldn’t use as the basis for a novel or a movie because no one would ever believe it.
- The things that resonate most within communities are the little kindnesses officers do on their jobs. They play basketball with neighborhood kids, buy a homeless man shoes, rescue a dog from a roadway, comfort someone in the darkest moment of his or her life. These stick in the minds of those we protect and serve and that impression can last a lifetime. Please remember that.
