As a Lieutenant, I see phenomenal work that men and women have done each week under my supervision. They're asked to accomplish tasks daily and are often pulled in many different directions by the department, me, their sergeants, and the community. They're constantly being asked to address a problem, and they do it. They do a phenomenal job doing this. I've seen them go out of their way to protect the community and save lives. This is something that doesn't necessarily get noticed all the time. However, with that said, we've seen some incidents where officers did not rise to the expectation. And sometimes, when that happens, we have tragic results. Those instances affect us as a profession, even if we were never involved. We should always strive to do better, to look at ourselves and see how we can improve, how we can be better as individuals, as police officers, as a department, and as a profession. We are the professionals that are going to be dealing with crises.
And just like doctors who are always looking at improving techniques on how to perform surgeries or how to address medical problems, we need to do the same.
We also need outstanding applicants willing to be a part of that mission, ready to work hard on themselves to do better, and expect the same from those they work with.