officer down

I have a million things I need to be doing - should be doing - but all I can think about is the family of the police officer killed last night in Cold Spring, about an hour north of us. He responded to a routine call, a welfare check, and was killed in an alley behind the apartment building he was responding to. They think he was ambushed, which was what I thought when I first read the initial reports.

His name was Tom Decker, and he’d been with Cold Spring/Richmond since 2006. He was a chief’s dream, according to his commanding officer. He was 31. He was married. He had four kids. And someone gunned him down in an alley, intentionally probably, though we don’t know yet why.

The media always likes to tell bad stories - stories of corruption or brutality and those are awful and should absolutely be brought to light and exposed but the true story is that most men and women in uniform are good and honest people doing hard, important work. They kiss their husbands and their wives, their kids, they go out the door and they do a job that puts them in danger pretty much every day. Those husbands and wives, those kids, they kiss their mom or dad and pray for a safe return and try not to let themselves imagine a world where there is an alternative ending.

They brought his body down 94 to the Ramsey County Medical Examiner this morning, a parade of police cars, lights and sirens clearing the way and making sure he wasn’t making the journey alone. One of the local stations had raw footage up on their website. I couldn’t watch it.

I’m not telling you to go hug a cop, but if you see one around maybe shake their hand and thank them for what they do? I know there are bad cops out there but I think about all the people in my husband’s department, all the good cops I know with huge hearts and the best of intentions and they run towards what we all run away from, every day. Every day.

Officer Decker was the 112th law enforcement officer slain in the line of duty this year. He was married. He had four kids. If you’re the praying type, maybe say one for all the people he left behind, the family and friends and coworkers and community, his whole law enforcement family, or spare a good thought. I know they could use it.