Description
Being a police officer in the United States is one of the most debated jobs today. Public opinion is strongly divided, with some people calling for fewer police and others wanting more. But beyond the political arguments, there are real men and women who put on the uniform every day. They believe they are doing important work to keep their communities safe.
Their work is not always what people imagine. While sometimes it involves chasing dangerous criminals, other times it is about protecting people from themselves. An officer might give you a warning about a seatbelt, but that same officer might also be the person who helps deliver a baby on the side of the road. This collection of stories offers a deep look into the lives of these officers. It shows what they go through and how they navigate the difficult path between making the right call and facing public anger. These are stories about how the job has changed them.
Jock Condon, an officer in the Midwest, knows the mental toll of the job. He was a police officer in the UK’s Royal Air Force and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. One night, he is sent to a burglary. He gets out of his car in the pouring rain and hears gunshots. He is flooded with memories of war, terrified his luck has run out. He worries his son will wake up without a father.
Inside, he finds a man bleeding from a chest wound. It is not a hardened criminal, but a drunk alcoholic who walked into the wrong house. Jock saves his life. This incident is not the first to trigger his trauma. He had flashbacks after having to put down an injured deer. He finally sought help and was diagnosed with PTSD. After getting therapy, he now dedicates himself to helping other officers get the mental health support they need.
The physical dangers are just as real. Brian Sturgeon is a K9 handler who works with his police dog, Argo. They are waiting for a suspect outside a house. When the suspect appears, Argo leaps over a fence to take him down. But as they struggle, another dog appears and attacks Argo. The suspect then pulls out a box cutter and starts stabbing the police dog. Brian tries to shoot the attacking dog, but his gun jams. The dog then attacks him. It is a chaotic scene.
Finally, Brian manages to shoot the other dog. His team arrives and arrests the suspect. Argo is rushed to a vet with terrible wounds. Incredibly, the brave dog recovers and is back on duty just ten days later.
Sometimes, the job hits close to home in unexpected ways. Tim O’Brien left the mortgage business to join the police. He’s a Boston kid who grew up around public service, and he teaches his own kids to have deep respect for the police. One evening, he gets a call. An officer tells him his son was in a car that was pulled over. Tim’s heart sinks, but the officer explains his son was just a passenger and was very respectful. Tim is relieved. Just fifteen minutes later, the same officer calls back, laughing. He has just pulled over Tim’s wife and daughter for speeding on the very same road.
Many officers join the force because of a personal experience. Laura McCord decided to become an officer after a female investigator helped her when she was the victim of a violent crime in high school. Now, Laura finds herself trying to help a 12-year-old boy named Trevor. Trevor’s stepdad has just shot his mom.
The boy is in deep shock, just staring at a small purple gorilla toy on a sergeant’s desk. Laura asks if he wants it. He says no. During the interview, they learn Trevor’s mom has died. Laura offers the gorilla again. This time, he takes it, sobbing as he rocks the toy. When the stepdad is arrested, he lies and claims Trevor killed his own mother. Trevor is forced to testify in court. He holds the purple gorilla as he gives his testimony, which helps convict his stepdad.
Pat Welsh, an officer in Dayton, Ohio, faces a different kind of challenge with a 12-year-old. A boy named Junior is reported missing, but Pat finds him at home. As Pat is leaving, Junior’s parents ask him to “give the boy a talk” because he’s running with a bad crowd. Pat, a white officer in his thirties, feels completely out of place trying to lecture a young Black kid. Junior stares at the floor the whole time. Pat leaves, convinced he wasted his time.
Many years pass. Pat is standing in line at a supermarket. He hears someone call his last name. In a dangerous city, this often means it is someone he arrested. He tenses up, wondering if he needs to reach for his ankle holster. But it is Junior, all grown up. He is a college graduate, a married man, and a father. He just wanted to find Pat and thank him for the talk that day, which helped turn his life around.
For Nicole Powell, a Black woman in the New Orleans Police Department, the challenges came from inside the station. Her career was going nowhere, and she had no female mentors. A new sergeant, however, saw her potential. He pushed her hard, marking up her reports with a red pen. At first, Nicole was offended, but he explained he wanted her to be a better investigator. He urged her to go back to school. Nicole took his advice, earning both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. She became a successful officer, working to build trust between the police and the community. She also recalls the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, where officers felt helpless, some even taking their own lives. Amid the chaos, she remembers finding and saving a mother and her newborn baby trapped in a hotel.
Sometimes, the job means facing the worst of humanity. Mitchell Wido was at a peer support workshop on April 20, 1999. The next day, he was sent to Columbine High School after one of the worst school shootings in history. He helped other officers process the horrific scene. They found unexploded bombs and identified the bodies of the victims and the two shooters.
A chaplain said prayers for every victim, but he could not bring himself to pray for the shooters. The officers understood. As a small, unseen act of respect for the grieving families, they refused to let the shooters’ bodies be transported in the same ambulance as any of the victims.
For FBI agent Patrick Dugan, policing is the family business. His father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all cops. He learns that bank robbery can also be a family business. He is investigating a series of robberies when a domestic abuse call provides a lucky break. A woman named Karen reports her boyfriend, Brad. It turns out Karen, a government administrator, has been helping Brad rob banks. She only called the police because Brad refused to give her a fair cut of the money.
Officer Lissette Rivero works undercover to protect the most vulnerable. Immigrant women in Chicago were being sexually abused by a doctor, but they were too afraid of deportation to report him. Dr. Alvarez, an immigrant himself, was seen as a hero in the Hispanic community. Lissette dresses as a patient and visits his clinic. He immediately touches her inappropriately. A second visit provides even more evidence. When he is charged, the community supports him, but when he sees Lissette walk into the courtroom, he knows the game is over.
Officer Shawn Patterson joined the force because a kind officer mentored him as a kid. He knows his actions have consequences. He once responded to a stabbing and found a man holding a knife over a victim, covered in blood. The man refused to drop the knife and stepped toward Shawn. Shawn was about to shoot, but the man dropped the knife at the last second. Three months later, Shawn saw the man in court with his two children. He was badly shaken, realizing he almost killed their father.
The risk to officers is not always so clear. Another night, Shawn deals with a drunk driver who has crashed his car. The man is cuffed in the back of the police car. He suddenly smashes his own head against the plexiglass partition, sucks up the blood running down his face, and spits it all into Shawn’s face, mouth, and eyes. The man screams that he has HIV and has just infected him.
Shawn is terrified. Tests show the man has hepatitis C. Shawn begins a miserable, stressful waiting game. He loses weight, vomits from the preventive medicine, and is scared of passing a deadly virus to his wife and kids. After a long period of monitoring, he is finally given the all-clear. These stories show the daily reality for officers walking that thin blue line between life and death.
