A Pierre Police Cruiser, one of the many life lines for an officer.
“Get down on the ground!” “Where did she hit you?” “Please slow down at the intersection next time. Have a nice day.” These are common phrases in a police drama: even more common in the daily lives of law enforcement officers across the nation.
Law enforcement officers play a role in every community across the country. While there are those who do not agree with having them, most agree that they are a necessary brick in society’s structure. They protect members of the communities against crime and keep our roads as safe as possible. Officers even protect residents from themselves and one another. They deal daily in situations that would turn many people’s stomachs inside out and keep their calm when all around them is chaos.
Officer Justin Harmon, an officer with a little over three years of experience, said that he would warn anyone coming into the profession that whatever you imagine the career to be, it is more. He, like many, got into law enforcement because it was the family business in a way and he had been around cops his whole life. Harmon said that he loves to get to help people. He knows that he is seeing people on their worst days, so he tries not to hold too much from their interactions against them.
Hughes County Deputy Lee Weber said the hardest part of his job was the unknown. “Your dispatcher can only get so much from the caller, especially in a crisis situation. Sometimes you are going in blind to a situation that could be life threatening.” He also told countless stories of having to be a parent for children in the community. “So many people rely on you to wake their kids up, get them ready for school, stuff that really isn’t a police matter. You become a scary authority figure to these kids and it makes them resentful and afraid of law enforcement before they even get into middle school.” This was a statement echoed by Officer Harmon.
Both officers really drove the point home that they are out here to help. They do not want to be the scary people whom parents use to get their children to behave. They want to be someone children can go to in times of trouble. They want law enforcement to be a career that people are willing to go into because of a desire to genuinely help people.
Arresting people comes with the territory, but these law enforcement officials want people to know that an officer is not someone whom you need to be afraid of. When you work together with the officers in your community, you can help to make it a better, safer place.
