A letter to law enforcement

I’m not going to sugar coat it — this is not a great time to be in law enforcement. Over the past few decades you have been asked to do more with less, and the cracks are starting to show. Budgets are spread thin, and so are you. Minimum staffing has become the benchmark rather than the extreme and every new crisis seems to have a police solution. To your credit, you rarely complain about it. You put on the uniform every day and just do your job to the best of your ability. But even though children tend to see you as superheroes, you are still human like the rest of us. After every shift, you take off the uniform and go home to your family, except sometimes not all of you do. And sometimes the people you are trying to protect don’t either, both are tragedies we could all do without.

This is not a great time to be in law enforcement, you are held to a standard higher than most of us could handle. You are empowered with great authority by us, and you accept that authority and try to use it to create peace and safety. But you are still human, sometimes you make mistakes. Sometimes those who are entrusted with that authority abuse it for their own needs, and sometimes you worry we won’t be able to tell the difference. I won’t lie and say we can, but hopefully the court of law is fairer than the court of public opinion.

This is not a great time to be in law enforcement, you are all being condemned based on the actions of the minority of you. The protests are not necessarily against you individually, but it can certainly feel that way. And you are being asked to put yourself in a position which creates the illusion of opposition to these protests against police brutality, something you likely are just as outraged about, and put yourself at risk to maintain peace and safety. And unfortunately, in all of the chaos and gray, some of you made mistakes, others abused their authority, and worst of all some of you didn’t go home.

This is not a great time to be in law enforcement, there is much uncertainty. People are chanting to ‘Defund the Police’ and you are not sure what is left to cut. You hear the calls for a better way of providing law enforcement, but you worry they will not bother to hear your ideas. I’m worried, too. I know you are frustrated, and you want change as well. I know you care about your community, and you care about the people in it. And I hope that you know many of us care about you, too.

This is not a great time to be in law enforcement, but I’m glad you are and I hope it will be soon.

Erik Larson

Aberdeen