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Stuart Revercomb

Stuart Revercomb is a marketing consultant and joyously married father of four children. He seems to remember someone once telling him he ought to be a writer. "The Unseen Here and Now" -- Thursdays.

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June 07, 2001

To Protect and To Serve

If I try hard enough I can still conjure up the image and sheer reverence that came to me as a child when I thought of a Police Officer. Police Officers were right up there with God, The President and Captain Kangaroo - one step above a Fireman, but not by much.

They wore sharp pressed uniforms and had shiny chrome badges and belts full of stuff to stop bad guys with - kind of a cross between a WWII GI and Batman, except they were even cooler because they had cars with sirens and radios. Police Officers carried guns with blue-black barrels that always looked bigger in real life than on TV.

I never understood why Batman didn't have a gun or a siren. Of course there were a lot of things about Batman I didn't understand - like his strange fascination with Cat Woman. Batman never treated any of the other arch villains like he did Cat Woman. He was always giving her these huge breaks. Sometimes he just stared at her. It was weird.

But Policeman generally didn't give any breaks. The law was the law and if you broke it, you were going to do your time. TV shows such as "Dragnet" and "One-Adam 12" made that clear enough. My brothers and I watched these programs religiously, and if you had asked me anytime between the age of 7-12 who I most wanted to be like when I grew up, (as if that was ever really a possibility), my immediate answer would have been "Reed" on "One-Adam 12".

Reed was the young methodical, clean cut officer who seemed to do everything so right and so smooth. There wasn't a bad guy in L.A. that could outrun him, and whenever his partner Malloy was in trouble you knew he could count on Reed to bale him out. Reed and Malloy spoke in codes to the voice on the radio. Your "10-20" was your location. "10-4" meant "O.K.". A "10-29" was a "Records Check". What could be cooler than that.

The motto on the side of their car, just like Sargent Joe Friday's of "Dragnet" read, "To Protect and To Serve", and when you laid your head on your pillow at night, you were glad to know that, all Hollywood effects aside, there were similar guys out there who were willing to "protect and to serve" you and those you loved.

As time went by, however, we were less and less enamored with officers of the law, and indeed some of our more spirited teenage activities would have met with a heavy disdain from the likes of Officers Reed and Malloy. The public also seemed to lose interest in the average Officer working a beat on the street, and the crime shows on TV almost all began to revolve around slick or wily Detectives in lieu of the average man in blue.

But the producers of these early "cop on the beat" shows didn't just show the high points ; they wisely offered a healthy balance of unglamourous images that helped more accurately portray the true nature of the job - scenes of the officers working a domestic dispute - or sitting at a desk before mountains of paperwork - or helping a confused elderly lady with a lost pet .

Even now when I see a young officer working his beat or performing a traffic stop, I am reminded that so much of what they do is difficult and tedious work - more often involving something like breaking up a fight between winos or trying to calm the frazzled nerves of a couple whose love for one another disappeared long before their teenage child took off or this months rent check bounced.

Ten minutes later the same officers may face a drug crazed individual waving a loaded gun in a convenience store parking lot, or find themselves wheeling madly down city streets in pursuit of someone who has already proven their willingness to kill. And even if such scenes don't play themselves out every day - at least not in Roanoke, they do happen often enough, and the stress and the strain of balancing the mundane with these very real incidents of violence can more than take their toll on the strongest officers in the field.

So when I heard the statistic the other night that more Police Officers in the United States die from suicide every year than in the line of duty, I wasn't completely surprised. But when I researched the actual numbers I was overwhelmed : Over 140 Law Enforcement Officers were killed in the line of duty in the most recent year in which I could locate full statistics for the United States. That same year over 300 more took their own lives.

What a sad statistic. What a tragic reality.

The men and women who have it in their hearts "to protect and to serve" the rest of us, deserve programs that can help carry them through the worst times they might face. Whether it's the guilt of taking the life of even someone who has threatened the lives of others, or the relentless day to day environment of conflict and turmoil that surrounds them, Police Officers need access to the best counseling available. Fortunately recent news articles indicate that most Police Departments have begun to offer just that - programs that offer a framework of assistance and support to those who face trials far more emotionally demanding than most of us are required to endure. Perhaps the statistics in coming years will look far better than those above.

What can you and I do? Not much I suppose. But my guess is that a simple expression of thanks the next time you're given the opportunity might make more than the day of an officer who surely faces some pretty tough ones ahead. If you're not sure how to say it, just look them hard and square in the eyes, pause a moment and simply say, "thank you".

They'll know what you're talking about.