Confessions of a Police Officer

[Guest]

Dear Citizens, Neighbors, Friends and Family,

My name is Jill and I am a cop. That means that the pains and joys of my personal life are often muted by my work. I resent the intrusion but I confuse my self with my job almost as often as you do. The label "police officer" creates a false image of who I really am. Sometimes I feel like I'm floating between two worlds. My work is not just protecting and serving. It's preserving that buffer that exists in the space between what you think the world is, and what the world really is.

My job isn't like television. The action is less frequent, and more graphic. It is not exhilarating to point a gun at someone. Pooled blood has a disgusting metallic smell and steams a little when the temperature drops. CPR isn't an instant miracle and it's no fun listening to an elderly grandmother's ribs break while I keep her heart beating. I'm not flattered by your curiosity about my work. I don't keep a record of which incident was the most frightening, or the strangest, or the bloodiest, or even the funniest. I don't tell you about my day because I don't want to share the images that haunt me.

But I do have some confessions to make:

Sometimes my stereo is too loud. Andrea Bocelli's voice makes it easier to forget the wasted body of the young man who died alone in a rented room because his family feared the stigma of AIDS. Beethoven's 9th symphony erases the sight of the nurses who sobbed as they scrubbed layers of dirt and slime from a neglected 2-year-old's skin. The Rolling Stones' angry beat assures me that it was ignorance that drove a young mother to draw blood when she bit her toddler on the cheek in an attempt to teach him not to bite.

Sometimes I set a bad example. I exceeded the speed limit on my way home from work because I had trouble shedding the adrenalin that kicked in when I discovered that the man I handcuffed during a drug raid was sitting on a loaded 9mm pistol.

Sometimes I seem rude. I was distracted and forgot to smile when you greeted me in the store because I was remembering the anguished, whispered confession of a teenager who pushed away his drowning brother to save his own life.

Sometimes I'm not as sympathetic as you'd like. I'm not concerned that your 15-year-old daughter is dating an 18-year-old because I just comforted the parents of a young man who slashed his own throat while they slept in the next bedroom. I was terse on the phone because I resented the burden of having to weigh the value of two lives when I was pointing my gun at an armed man who kept begging me to kill him. I laugh when you cringe away from the mess in your teen's room because I know the revulsion of feeling a heroin addict's blood trickling toward an open cut on my arm. If I was silent when you whined about your overbearing mother it's because I really wanted to tell you that I spoke to one of our high school friends today. I found her mother slumped behind the wheel of her car in a tightly closed garage. She had dressed in her best outfit before rolling down the windows and starting the engine.

On the other hand, if I seem totally oblivious to the blood on my uniform, or the names people call me, or the hateful editorials, it's because I am remembering the lessons my job has taught me.

I learned not to sweat the small stuff. Grape juice on the beige sofa and puppy pee on the oriental carpet don't faze me because I know what arterial bleeding and decaying bodies can do to one's decor.

I learned when to shut out the world and take a mental health day. I skipped your daughter's 4th birthday party because I was thinking about the six children under the age of 10 whose mother left them unattended to go out with a friend. When the 3-year-old offered the dog the milk from her cereal bowl, the dog attacked her, tearing open her head and staining the sandbox with blood. The little girl's siblings had to pry her head out of the dog's jaws - twice.

I learned that everyone has a lesson to teach me. Two mothers engaged in custody battles taught me not to judge a book by its cover. The teenage mother on welfare mustered the strength to refrain from crying in front of her worried child while the well-dressed, upper-class mother literally played tug of war with her toddler before running into traffic with the shrieking child in her arms.

I learned that nothing given from the heart is truly gone. A hug, a smile, a reassuring word, or an attentive ear can bring an injured or distraught person back to the surface, and help me refocus.

And I learned not to give up, ever! That split second of terror when I think I have finally engaged the one who is young enough and strong enough to take me down taught me that I have only one restriction: my own mortality.

One week in May has been set aside as Police Memorial Week, a time to remember those officers who didn't make it home after their shift. But why wait? Take a moment to tell an officer that you appreciate her work. Smile and say "Hi" when he's getting coffee. Bite your tongue when you start to tell a "bad cop" story. Better yet, find the time to tell a "good cop" story. The family at the next table may be a cop's family.

Nothing given from the heart is truly gone. It is kept in the hearts of the recipients. Give from the heart. Give something back to the officers who risk everything they have.

Jill Wragg is a retired Police Officer from Massachusetts. She can be reached at JKWragg@yahoo.com

(This piece is copyrighted, all rights reserved, and can be used by permission only)

NOTE: EMTBravo has received written permission from the author to post this in its entirety on this site. Anyone wishing to use it in any other forum or manner must obtain prior permission from the author. She can be contacted via e-mail atthe address above.

Jill"s Blog

[RWC130 594]

WOW!!! Very Touching.....

To ALL Police Officers,

THANK YOU!

[Fire24 1]

AMEN! So very true. Thanks to everyone who does this too-often thankless job!

[DOC22 1]

WOW! Excellent find, vacguy!! Very touching indeed, and so true.

Thanks to you LEOs for everything you do.

[FFD941 20]

This can definately work for all branches of the Emergency Services.

Thank You

[jack10562 414]

Jill is a new member on the site, and I would like to publicly thank her for sharing her thoughts, and granting us permission to post her work!

[helicopper 1,050]

Jill is a new member on the site, and I would like to publicly thank her for sharing her thoughts, and granting us permission to post her work!

Ditto! I also recommend that you take some time and visit her site to read some of her other works. They are exceptional and provide tremendous insight into the world of law enforcement as seen through the eyes of a police officer!

Jill, thanks for all that you have done and are doing! Keep up the great work!

[JBE 328]

AMEN!!! Welcome to the party, Jill. My father (RIP) was NYPD for 30 years, I dunno how he did it.

[Guest]

thanks Doc and jill (and i'm sure seth) for your help on this. i recieved this in an email not knowing rights were owned, and not knowing that i posted it here. jill and Doc were kind enough to bring that to my attention. it's a very powerful piece, as you have read. thanks jill for sharing.

Edited June 10, 2008 by vacguy

[IzzyEng4 427]

Great post!

[EMTbravo 312]

thanks Doc and jill (and i'm sure seth) for your help on this. i recieved this in an email not knowing rights were owned, and not knowing that i posted it here. jill and Doc were kind enough to bring that to my attention. it's a very powerful piece, as you have read. thanks jill for sharing.

Actually, I had nothing to do with this. This incident was completly and professionally handled by our Director Of Member Relations, DOC22, and EMTBravo.net Deputy Administrator Of Forum Operations, jack10562. Great job guys! And vacguy, we appreciate your cooperation and respect in this.

Also, special thanks to Jill for allowing her work to be showcased on our forum.

[Guest]

Jill, THANK YOU for saying what so many officers would like to say. As a wife of a former police officer I was on the other side of this. My husband died too young, and I know he would have completely related with what you said. Life is too short and too precious. I want to personally thank all Police Fire and EMT organizations for the valued work you all do. You may not hear it on a daily basis, but there are many people out there who appreciate what you do!

[MTACOP 0]

After 20 years as a police officer I must say, while we're often treated like crap, I enjoy much better benefits and working conditions than I did in the previous 10 years in EMS.

EMS hasn't improved like the police and fire services with wages and benefits, and is treated like a redheaded step child of emergency services.

Sure I enjoyed the week, that's right the whole 7 days after 9/11 when people would stop and say "thanks" or applaud as we walked to and from ground zero. A week later it all started again, slowly as people moved on and remembered how much they dislike the police.

So, THANK YOU EMT'S and PARAMEDICS!!! You do so much for so little, know I sincerely appreciate you for it.