Ed Note: The essay below was the winning entry into a recently completed contest held at CopsOnline. Launched in 1996 as the original web site for real cops, by real cops and now a part of the Police1 Network, the new CopsOnline offers an expanded selection of interactive online features like videos, blogs, forums, pictures, and friend lists. We’ll be posting other top vote-getters in this essay contest in upcoming weeks – check the Police1 website on alternating Thursdays for the next couple of months for those.
Read the other finalists in the CopsOnline Essay Contest and get involved in the community
By Andrew G. Hawkes
We all remember the great sense of accomplishment when we first graduated from the police academy. It was your rookie year, and whether you were 20 or 40 when you started, the rush of adrenaline in anticipation of your first night at work will forever be ingrained in your mind.
If you were like me, you probably stood in front of the mirror for hours looking at yourself in your crisp, new uniform, leather and boots shined to a mirror finish. Looking at that badge pinned to your chest brought out all the feelings that made you choose this profession of law enforcement, this tough, unforgiving, relentless field of police work. Honor, truth, justice…..You were going to make a difference, no matter what. It mattered little that you would commit your life to midnight shifts and working holidays, it mattered not what little pay they would offer you…You were a Police Officer, and nothing in the world felt better.
The years were good but began to go by quickly. Your “Save the World” outlook slowly began to become jaded, watching crooks and dopers get off on light sentences, bailing out of jail before you could even finish the paperwork. You may have been involved in a shooting, a crash, a use of force incident where you felt that you protected and served to your very best ability, only to be second guessed by Monday morning brass that hadn’t sat in a squad car in a decade, or ever.
The stress and bull shit of the job may have even taken its toll on your personal life as well. Peewee baseball games, dance recitals, wedding anniversaries, and other important life events all squandered away in the name of justice. “Someone’s got to do it,” you tell yourself, and so you show up, never complaining but often wondering what possessed you to ever want to become a cop so many years ago.
It’s not like you hate your job. In fact, you probably love the job as much as you always have, but your maturity now has defined the personal sacrifices you have made. You wonder what it is inside of you that makes you feel so proud when you are so angry at the same time. It’s that inner sense of pride, the same pride you had that first night on the job, that “calling” to be a cop that has never disappeared from your inner being. This is the core, intangible trait that lives within every good cop. The one quality that you possess, that you just can’t explain to a civilian that doesn’t understand why anyone would want to do this job.
But the more you think about, the more you contemplate on it, it all makes sense. You became a cop because you believed in justice. You became a cop because, quite simply, you believe in right and wrong and the accountability of both. You became a cop because you know that someone has got to do it. You became a cop to protect the weak, to arrest the scumbag criminals who steal, kill and pillage the innocent. Yeah, that’s why you did it. You may have had a turning point in your way of thinking over the years, but one thing has remained constant and that is why you are a cop, because of honor.
So next time some well meaning civilian makes a stupid joke about eating donuts to you, jokingly say, “Someone’s got to do it, right?” Then as you watch him walk away, remember that first night on the street, remember all your fallen comrades, the fights and the chases, and the children that you have saved and helped from harm’s way. Then say to yourself, “I do it because it’s the right thing to do; I do it because have been chosen by a higher power, to be one of America’s Finest, I do it for the honor. I am an American Police Officer.”
Sgt. Andrew Hawkes is a 17-year law enforcement veteran. He began working highway drug interdiction full time in 1993. Hawkes has won many awards in Texas for his interdiction success. He has been an interdiction instructor for police departments, area police academies and for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s basic narcotic investigators’ school. Hawkes has completed graduate courses in public administration and holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Dallas Baptist University. Sgt. Hawkes is the author of Secrets of Successful Highway Interdiction, an eBook which is available for purchase and download here, and is a “how to” for the street officer wishing to develop drug interdiction skills. Hawkes has been featured in The Dallas Morning News and TNOA Narcotic Officer’s Quarterly as well as many area newspapers and law enforcement Web sites.