Story of the week…

Sometimes I wonder why…

Sometimes when I see what goes on around me, I wonder why I became a cop 10 years ago.

When a car “blows” a stop sign deliberately, nearly causing an accident, and after stopping the driver, I get a foul mouth, a bad attitude, and am accused of being a racist cop, all before I even say a word.
That’s not why…

When I see a group of teens on a street corner throwing down their food wrappers, cans, and garbage right in front of me, and then throwing out belligerent obscenities when I have them pick up their garbage.
That’s not why…

When I go to a domestic violence call where the husband beat the crap out of his wife in front of the kids. I arrest the husband and arm the wife with all the information she needs to get out of the abusive situation, only for me to return to the residence over and over again for repeated domestic violence calls. All because the wife changes her mind months later, lying in court saying she fell, and she lets the abuser back in the house time and time again.
That’s not why I became a cop….

When I wave to a group of kids in a neighborhood, only to have them run away, or worse, flip me off or call out the same slang terms that they see the drug dealers do.
That’s not why…

When I go into a store and a kid comes up to say hi, but mom or dad tells them I am going to take them away if they don’t behave, and the child’s expression goes from a friendly smiling face to a terrified panic look.
That’s not why either.

Most cops get into police work hoping to save the world. But most, like me, rapidly realize that we are far outnumbered and that our accomplishments are few compared to the amount of crime that goes unpunished. Cops soon realize that they cannot save the world, but they can make a small dent in it.

I took a citizen rider with me on patrol last week and I was cruising through a residential neighborhood. I am usually running from call to call in the late afternoon, just trying to keep up with the flow of calls for service coming in. But this day was relatively quiet. I saw 4 small kids playing on a lawn and when they saw me, they began running as fast as they could up the street as though racing.

I paced them for a moment and then I yelled out “hey”. They stopped in their tracks and stared at me with a scared expression on their faces. I asked “whose winning”? The look of fear on their faces melted into smiles as they approached my patrol car. Their eyes grew big while looking at all the equipment in the car and as I answered all their questions. We talked for about 5 minutes before my radio started crackling with calls to go to. I shook hands with the kids, gave them a plastic badge, and “swore them in as junior police”

As I drove off, the kids ran alongside me waving, with huge smiles on their faces, and then running towards home to show off their new badge.
THAT, I reminded myself, is why I became a cop.

The citizen rider was amazed how cops can be like a magnet for kids.
I told him that unfortunately, cops can be so busy running from call to call, that a lot of times, we don’t even see the kid on the lawn waving as we speed by. Or being so preoccupied with rushing to the next call, we don’t even see the group of kids trying to get our attention as we leave a call, sometimes leaving the kids with the impression that we are too busy for them, or that we don’t care.

The impression that we make while on patrol is the one the kids will grow up with. Unfortunately, too many parents today do not teach their children respect, manners, or even right from wrong. The parents themselves are failures and the kids grow up with a bad attitude, believing the police are the enemy. I often hear parents say “I give up”, “he’s your problem now”.

A few years ago, I once took pizza, milk, and ice cream to two kids whose mother had gotten beat up by their father. The sight of their bloody mother had traumatized the kids, and there wasn’t much food in the house, so I decided to help out. The kid’s eyes lit up when I took in the food. The little girl began to cry and both kids ran up and hugged me. I ran into the mother a few weeks ago, and yes, she took her abusive husband back and there is still domestic violence. But she said that her children ask about me often, and run to the street waving when they see a police car. I touched these kid’s lives and made a lasting impression that cops do care. I wish I had enough money and time to do this with every situation involving young children

That is why I need to remember to take the time, every day, to look for the kids waving or trying to say hi. Even if I am running from call to call, just one wave letting the kids know that I saw them could make a lasting impression. When I do demonstrations at schools, I love to see the kid’s eyes light up as I talk. And I love answering their questions, however far-fetched they can be.

The world has changed from when I grew up. There was a lot more discipline in raising children back then, there was a lot more respect towards people, property, and authority then, and there was not nearly as much violence then. A lot of today’s kids I see on the street have no respect for themselves, let alone others.

It’s easy to get cynical or “burned out” when I hear the police radio spit out calls for 10 hours a day, when I see the kids of today that failed parents have given up on. When I see the disrespect for my uniform that today’s teens have, when I see 13-year-old mothers pregnant again with another child. When I see the senseless violence and violent attitude teens have today, when I hear certain rap music songs spitting out lyrics of death, violence, rape, and cop killing that kids of today listen to at full volume. Yes, it is easy to think that society has taken a downward spiral that cannot be fixed.

I see the vandalism, violence, disrespect and abandoned parenting of today and I began to feel outnumbered again. I start to wonder why I became a cop but then I remember the kids smiling faces, in awe just looking at the inside of a police car. And the way kids can look up to a cop as a super-hero.

Every wave on the street from a kid or adult, every handshake or thank you I get, and every smiling face I see after pinning on a plastic badge, replaces the bad experiences I have with the disrespectful ones. And I remember, THAT is why I became a cop. Yes, I am outnumbered, but I will make my own small dent in this world. And I’ll have lots of help from all the “junior police” I swear in….

Mark Lambert