To the LEOs in here......

R

ROSANGHAL

Joined
Aug 5, 1999
Messages
610
Maybe a little off topic but here goes....

I spent most of the first half of the yesterday at a Memorial held for 12 officers, at Harrisburg Area Community College. These men graduated or attended the college and went on to become law enforcement officers and died in the line of duty.

Thier survivors where in attendance along with other representatives of various state and local law agencies and cadets training to become officers were there also along with others who wished to pay their respects to these men.

It was a nice memorial. A State Trooper sang the National Anthem and another officer did a tune on bag pipes.

What was really hit home, though, is that these men appeared to be normal everyday guys just like all of us here........With one exception. They died doing something they believed in so strongly that they gave up their lives for it. How many here would die for thier jobs?

It has to makes you think. To put a salary on this occupation is, kinda, unthinkable. How much is an officers life? How much money does it take to want to enter into this profession?

I've come to the realization that it isn't the money that pointed them in their occupational path that they took. It had to have been intrinsical for them to knowingly put their lives on the line to get something they wanted or felt that something needed to be done.

Going home after a day at work knowing that you somehow in someway made a difference no matter how insignificant it may immediately seem, you made a difference for the better, at least tried too. Trying to make
your little part of the world safe and orderly could have been another
reason they did it.

Going to a job that you know is important. I'm not sure on all of the people on this board and what their occupation is but if that occupation were to go under right this moment, what effect would it have in the world? Would the only effect be felt by the workers and their immediate family? Or would the world still remain the same and hardly anyone would notice a change. Imagine what the world would be like if law enforcement everywhere were to disappear tommorrow. The world would be forever changed.

Those are just two of the reasons I could think of, off the top of my head, why people go into this line.

The reason I wanted to put this post up is two fold. One, is that there are men and women out there who have died for their duties to protect and serve us all and we should all be thankful of that.

Two, there are men and women out there who are putting their lives on the line to do their duties to protect and serve us all and we should thank them for it.

Thanks
Ross T.
 
Actually just got off duty, man did I really need to read that!!!Glas somebody notices. You're very welcome.:D
 
I've just got off duty myself and it is nice to know we are appreciated sometimes !

Thanks. !
 
I strongly agree. These men and women put their lives on the line for us civilians that they don't even know. Too many times the press likes to critisize LEO's and it makes me mad. A friend of mine when I was growing up became an LAPD officer and was killed in the line of duty. I found out by seeing his face on the 5 o'clock news. Thanks to our LEO's our society is a better place. Thanks you guys and keep up the good work!
 
Ross

We have a memorial in a small area between our Police Department and our City Hall. The memorial itself is a large brick and glass triangular monument with brass plaques giving offices names who died in the line of duty in our county.

Three coworkers (including two I called friends) are on that monument.

Thank you
 
Thanks a lot for the thoughts guys.

Everyday as I leave my house, my routine is the same. I kiss my wife and kids at the door, then walk to my patrol and head off for work. The short distance from my front door to my driver's door is a long, long walk, because I cross that distance knowing I may have just talked to my family for the last time. I don't imagine that is a feeling a lot of people have REALLY experienced.

I will tell you, whenever I hear or read things like those posted above, it washes away a lot of the frustration I carry from the normal demands of police work. Thanks a lot guys.

Visit www.odmp.org if you have not, and put some faces to the names.
 
you know ive been planning a career in law enforcement, and reading the list of the officers shot really scares me. it also gives me a whole new level of respect for the men out there putting their ass on the line to protect us.
 
Just like the rest of society, if you look at the stats, an Officer is much more likely to be killed in a car accident than by gun, knife or beating. In fact, they might have an increased chance because of the nature of the driving involved.
 
Don,

It is interesting that you say that Police Officers are much more likley to die in a car accident. A part of the British Army Training to go to the Balkens they let you know big time that the biggest cause of accidents and deaths of the "Peace keeping" force is road traffic accidents.

Regards,

Ed
 
Ed,

I'm not much of a believer in stats, when it happens to you, it did not much matter what the statistical chances of it were, you just made 100%.

I'm not saying Police should not keep on their toes...just not worry about one thing and ignore the other...

Like all of the braying about pocket knives from Sheriffs and Police Chiefs over here...they're more likely to get killed on the way to the Press Conference to gripe about "Flick Knives" then to ever have one really threaten their lives...
 
Don,

If you are talking about stats, the one that I like about the UK Lottery is that as a white male in my thirties, if I buy a ticket on a Monday or Tuesday then I am more likely to be dead than to win the draw on the Saturday - kinda makes you think......

At least in the US you have a debate on knives, with current UK laws you cannot sell or market a knife as a "combat knife", let alone own one. Maybe that is why they do not see many Emersons in the shops.

Regards,

Ed
 
Don,

By now you should know how much respect I have for you and your knowledge, but I have to VERY RESPECTFULLY disagree, particularly with you saying "much more likely". Generally, it is a fairly even split between officers killed feloniously and those killed accidentally. The last numbers I know show 99 officer deaths so far this year, 40 by gunfire, 11 by vehicular assault, and 2 by assault, for a total of 53 feloniously killed, and the balance dying by accident. Of the accidental deaths, just 35 were by vehicle accident.

Another thing to consider is this. As police officers, we drive all the time under high stress conditions, which forces us to be better drivers than most people, just because we are doing it all the time, so we are able to avoid a lot of accidents or minimize the damage of those accidents we do get into. On the other hand, we do not fight with or get into gunfights with people too often. While we train to get our rounds on target, that does not equate to scoring hits on the street. So, since we are far less exposed to fighting with people, we are, in fact, more likely to get hurt or killed at the hands of another.

On another note, I do not know if I would encourage anybody to enter my profession right now, for a number of reasons.
 
What were the remaining accidents?

We can drop "much more likely" to "more likely" or "tied," it was a statement against being overly concerned. Of course you are concerned that something might happen, but you cannot let it control you. That was really the point of my statement.

And the "Flick Knife" portion I stand behind, 100%. An Officer is more likely to be killed in a car accident, or an assault with a motor vehicle, than to ever have some serious contact with this sort of knife.

As for your statements about not entering Law Enforcement for other reasons, that could be a long list, yeah?

In many cases, damned if you do and damned if you don't, political games...you figure out the answers, Administrators change the questions. It's amazing that so many people stay in the field actually.
 
There is no amount of money they could pay me to put up with all the crap piled on LEOs. They all have my utmost respect for their dedication and if they were paid what they were worth they'd all be millionaires (or at least have unlimited Emerson knife budgets! :) )
A very humble "Thanks"
 
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