LET’S GET REAL HERE

LET’S GET REAL HERE By Joe Ingino B.A. Psychology Editor/Publisher Central Newspapers ACCOMPLISHED WRITER/AUTHOR OF OVER 800,000 Published Columns in Canada and The United States People wake up. Let’s get real here. Many of you have issues with the 911 service. Some complain that they do not respond to calls quick enough. Imagine services not showing up at all... The civility of a society is dependent on the front line police officers that keep the peace and persecute criminals in order to keep us safe. Sure we have had our share of rouge officers. But that is why the captains and sergeant are there for. To keep them in line. Today it appears that policing has become another institution constantly beckoning for increased budgets so that the top bras can play executive while tightening the grip on the under rank with policy and boards that restrict the ability to do their jobs. Lowering standards in recruits ads to the topology of a police being able to do his job. This Friday, the newswire lit up with “Highway 401 wrong-way chase results in criminal charges for two Durham police officers. The charges come after a complex investigation by the civilian watchdog into the actions of the Durham regional police officers.” Now let’s look at this from a reality perspective. Our police officers are not super heroes. They are human beings faced with the responsibility to show up at work every day not really knowing if they will make it back home alive. The level of stress for the average police officer is extremely high. Not only are they faced with having to deal with the reality of the particular situation they are called upon to respond. They also have to deal with the circumstance, the content and context as per law. This means that they are putting their lives at risk due to policy and law. The incidents that took place on the 401 were tragic. A perpetrator driving on the opposite side of the highway at high speed. To end in the loss of life. Horrible situation. Subsequently the officer in pursuit not only risked his life in the chase that served two purposes. One, it alerted the on coming traffic of the situation. Something that the on coming traffic should automatically slowed down and pulled over. Something that does not happen on the 401. Drivers see a dangerous situation and fail to slow down or even stop. So it is easy to put the blame on the officer without acknowledging the risk he took. Secondly, these officers that continued the pursuit not only risk their lives but in a way prevented from many others to be lost. Then why are these two officer facing: each with three counts of criminal negligence causing death, and two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm. If I was a police officer I would go on strike. This independent body went on a witch hunt that is sending the wrong message to the morale of the front line officers. The DRPS board, executives need to cut the red tape, the paper work. They need to disband the level of bureaucracy and filter responsibility through the ranks. Criminally charing officers for doing their job is wrong. Officers caught abusing their stature must be disciplines. Officers risking their lives to prevent further loss should not have their lives ruined with criminal charges. Think about it. You are sitting in a police car. The call comes through. Are you going to attend rapidly and risk your life and the livelyhood of your family. Justice is about interpretation not a tool to restrict duty to society and country. What next. We are going to charge every military service person with murder for killing during war?