The men and women in blue

The most chilling thing you can hear on a police radio is "officer down" and unfortunately this happens many times a year, every year, in the United States. As we celebrate Memorial Day by honoring those who have gone before us, I think it's especially important to remember those law enforcement officers who were killed in the line of duty while protecting us.

Police work and military service in a hostile area are two of the few jobs people go to work to every day not knowing if they're going to come back home when their shift is over. It's something law enforcement officers accept and try and put in the back of their minds but it's always there. One of the things always taught in training academies is to follow proper procedure every single time you come into contact with the public because the one time you don't might cost you your life.

That happened to a good friend of mine who made a routine traffic stop in Tulsa one night. Proper procedure called for reporting the tag number of the car to dispatch along with the location of the stop but he did neither. We were also instructed to stand behind the driver's door while talking to the person inside the car but he didn't do that either. He walked directly up to the driver's side window, leaned forward to ask the driver for his identification and was shot point blank in the chest, killing him instantly.

Another friend of mine was part of a drug bust at a local residence in Tulsa. He was assigned to cover the back door of the house as other officers forced entry at the front. As they did that, a suspect came running out the back door and my friend identified himself as a Tulsa police officer and told him to stop. As the suspect was on a dead run through the back yard, he turned and fired one shot, striking my friend in the heart, killing him instantly as well.

One of our motorcycle officers was seriously injured one day when he lost control of his cycle during a high-speed chase. Six police cars and two other motorcycle officers accompanied the ambulance to the hospital. When we drove up to the emergency room, the medical personnel were waiting outside to begin treatment as quickly as possible. Noticing that eight emergency vehicles had accompanied the ambulance to the hospital, one of the nurses said to one of the other officers that we really took care of each other. His response was, "Yes, ma'm, we do because nobody else gives a damn." Thankfully, the officer injured in the crash recovered.

I once responded to a call involving a couple's teen-age son who was both drunk and high. They had locked him out of the house and he was trying to break down the front door. It was rush hour traffic that day in Tulsa and I arrived at the scene before my back-up did. Because of the volatility of the situation, I decided to proceed alone which, incidentally, also violated departmental regulations. I confronted the teenager, he took a swing at me with the whiskey bottle he was holding in his hand and a scuffle ensued. As we were wrestling around on the porch, he somehow got my gun out of my holster, held it up to my face and pulled the trigger. Our departmental issue was a Smith and Wesson six shot .38 special, but I had always loaded only four, leaving the one in the chamber empty as well as the next one. I was concerned about the gun accidentally firing and shooting myself or someone else if it was dropped or mishandled and if someone was ever able to get my gun away from me, I wanted them to have to pull the trigger more than once to shoot me. This was the scenario I faced that afternoon. He pulled the trigger with my own weapon pointing just above my right eye but it hit on an empty chamber by design and I was able to subdue him shortly after that.

I've been told by others that because people join the military or law enforcement agencies by choice, they should be fully aware of the hazards and risks of the job and shouldn't be treated like heroes when they die in the line of duty. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, even when it's stupid and wrong, but in my mind they ARE heroes because they're doing something every day most people wouldn't do and they aren't being paid very much to boot. Law enforcement is the only thing that keeps the animals out there away from the average person who's just trying to do the best they can do and make it through the day. If they weren't there to protect us, who would?

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of my fallen brothers and sisters in law enforcement and their families and friends on this Memorial Day and to all the men and women who put on the uniform, strap on the gun, pin on the badge and put their lives on the line every single day to protect us and keep us safe.

Once a police officer, always a police officer.