I’m Taking the Day Off…

In my current position, I rarely, if ever get a day off.  OK, that is not completely true I frequently have days where I don’t have to come in to the office, however equally frequently I get calls about all sorts of stuff while I am on my personal time.  These calls typically come from officers and are anything from “What do you think we can charge,” to “any idea where we can store an oversized dead body.” OK that second one was totally made up.  Anyway I am always on call.  

I have to admit from time to time I get frustrated by this.  It sucks that the calls seems to always come when my Cougars are driving in the fourth quarter, or right as my kids comes up to the plate in Babe Ruth league.  It can however, be nice when the call comes in the middle of church and the speaker is dragging a bit.  More than once I have left my wife to juggle all the kids by herself as I slip out of the pew with a “sorry hon, its work.”  Anyway, a I mentioned I am always on call. 

Now you may be surprised that the point of the blog is not to make you feel sorry for me, in fact, it is quite to the contrary.  I have it made in the shade.  I get a call saying “what should we charge,” after the poor detective was called in at 2:00 a.m. and has been working for 45 of the last 48 hours.  I answer a five minute call, the officers give their lives to helping those in need. 

There have been many times that I have received a call on a Sunday afternoon and then met with the officer on Monday morning to talk about the case.  I spoke on the phone and then went back in to the church, the officer has not been at home or slept since we talked.  

From time to time I mention to my wife, I just can’t deal with these cases any more.  I lament that I have spent the entire day going over autopsy reports and looking at pics of dead bodies.  She is kind enough to remind me that at least I was not the one who had to be there taking the pictures, moving the bodies and notifying their loved ones… The officers were.  

So my point, it is pretty simple: I have it great! I am on call and I have to be interrupted in five minute increments on occasion.  The Detectives and Officers who keep us safe, they are interrupted in multiple day long increments.  They are always on call, always working, always doing what we don’t even want to talk about because it scares us… They do it for their communities, their families, their loved ones.  They do it for us, strangers who they may never meet.  We are safe because of them.  We sleep well because of them.  

So to the Detectives who brought me over an extremely sad case involving little kids yesterday and to those Detectives who were forced to listen to my whining about having to read about these atrocities, thank you.  Thank you for not reminding me that you did not just read about it but you lived it.  Thank you for being the ones who were there with the kids.  Thank you for being the ones who tired to dry their tears.  Thank you for being the ones trying to remain stoic as you were doing the best you could to provide their moms and their dads some relief.  Thank you for spending another weekend away from your own kids little league games, barbecues and sports on TV to make our community a better and a safer place.  Thank you for your sacrifice for us.

My most sincere thanks to all the men and women in blue.  If I can help you in some small way, please... call anytime.