Well everyone this week brings me to the end of my first ever Blog.  It has been a very enjoyable couple of months and I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog and reading your comments.  Please enjoy the final week of my blog and I welcome any comments you may have.

I'm sure all of you have seen the image above.  I always wonder if the general public knows what the image represents and what they think of it.  For those of you who have never seen this image this is what law enforcement refer to as the "Thin Blue Line."  Many law enforcement officers have license plates that bear this symbol while still others have bracelets that have the design above.  The thin blue line, as its known,  does not mean the same thing to everyone.  For me the thin blue line means the separation of law enforcement officers from the criminal element.  The blue line itself is how I envision police officers being separated from those that violate the law.

The way I envision this concept is that law enforcement officers make dozens of decisions everyday.  Each of these decisions affects a persons life and ultimately can have far reaching affects.  The decisions that law officers make and the ethics, morals and judgement that they use to make these decisions is what separates us from the criminal element.  The thin blue line is symbolic not only because its color matches the uniforms that many in law enforcement are known for wearing, but because the line is "Thin."  Think about that concept for a second.  The thin blue line is very meaningful in that what separates law enforcement officers from the criminal element is our willingness and desire to do what is right.  We all know that as law enforcement officers our decisions will routinely be called into question and from time to time we will make decisions that are wrong.  What separates us however from the criminal element is the intent and legal foundation of our decisions. If we have nefarious intentions and we act in a way that is against the law then we have crossed the proverbial thin blue line and have entered the world of the criminal element.

This is an important point for police officers to keep in mind everyday.  What separates law enforcement from the criminal element is not something that we can measure or reach out and touch.  Rather the separation occurs because of the ethical and moral principles that guide our decisions as law enforcement officers.

For the general public that goes to work everyday and enjoys the weekends with their families they really have no idea what police officers have to deal with on an every day basis.  I recently returned to patrol after being in an administrative position for the last several years.  One of the first calls I responded to was that of a man who wanted to kill himself.  This subject was armed with a knife and was known to be violent.  Think about the circumstances of this call for a minute.  How many and what kind of decisions do you think an officer has to contemplate before they arrive at a call like this.  Well as the supervisor for this particular call I can tell that I made close to a dozen different decisions alone on this particular call.  The reason why I use this example and the reason I bring this up is to give everyone some insight on just how many decisions law enforcement officers have to make on a daily basis.  These decisions are not always the right ones and sometimes we do really stupid stuff(See all of my previous weeks blog postings).  However on the other hand the men and women whom I have had the privilege of serving with over the last 20 years are good people.  They knew this job would be tough and they knew the would never be millionaires.  They know when they come to work everyday they may not make it home to see their families.  The fact is that myself and the officers with whom I work are interested in serving the greater good.  We go to work everyday and we try to leave a positive impact on our city and its citizens.  Some days are better than others, but you can bet that when we return to work we will do our best to represent our citizens, our families and our fellow officers in a manner that would be respected by all.  As I close out this blog I ask you to take solace in these facts and remember to thank an officer the next time you see them.  I'd like to remind everyone that the stories you read in my blog over the last several weeks were the exception and not the rule.  Law enforcement just like any other profession has bad apples.  The facts are however that most officers are good, hard working people that are trying to combat all the ills of society.

Hello again everyone and welcome back to my blog.  This week I'd like to take a few minutes to talk about an article that hit home with me.  Every couple of years I am required to completed re-certification for a variety of different topics.  The re-certification process is usually a mundane task that is accomplished by studying material and then answering relatively easy questions.  Just this past week I had to get re-certified on our criminal database.  The learning part of this process took over an hour while the test itself took six minutes.  Needless to say I got a 96% on the test and I will not need to worry about that topic for the next two years.  The reason I bring this up is because I recently saw an article that caught my eye.  The link to the article is located below.  Please take a couple of minutes and read the article.


http://www.officer.com/news/11320457/officer-quickfire-recap-fourth-week-of-february

As you can see from the article a large number of Pennsylvania State Troopers are at risk of losing their careers over their efforts aimed at cheating during an exam.  As the article states a fellow trooper, who had taken the exam on a previous day, used his cellphone to send answers to troopers who were taking the exam the following day.  What the trooper did not count on was the fact that the exam was formatted in many different versions.  This led to multiple officer missing a large number of questions because they did not check the authenticity of the answers that had been supplied to them.  This is yet another poor example that has been set by our nations law enforcement officers.  These officers risked their livelihoods by cheating on a test that they probably could have past without any help.  As I mentioned above I routinely take re-certification exams.  These processes usually involve topics that I am very familiar with and in twenty years I have yet to fail one.  I cannot imagine cheating on one of these tests and risking everything I have worked so hard for over the course of my career.  Unfortunately there are bad apples in every profession and these officers have tarnished a very noble profession.  

If we want to assign blame in this case I'm sure most of you would target the officer who sent the other officers what he thought were the answers.  While I would absolutely lay most of the blame at his feet, it seems to me that this was pre-planned and that the officers who received the answers surely knew that the officer who had taken the test the previous day would help them out.  These officers had the entire day to think about whether or not they would use the information and they certainly could have deleted the text message that contained the answers.  This is certainly a disturbing case, a case that brings in to question the integrity and ethical makeup of the officers involved.  Can these officers be trusted by the public after this fiasco?   Can the local prosecutor use their testimony in future cases without fear of their integrity being called in to question.  These are issues that will have to be answered.  These are issues that would not have become issues if not for the wayward acts of a couple dozen Pennsylvania State Troopers.  

I look forward to your comments regarding this article.  I also want to thank all of you for continuing to visit my blog.  Next week will be the last week of my Ethics class and thus will bring an end to this blog.  For my entry next week I will not focus on negative actions of officers, rather I will focus on what sacrifices officers make and how they face ethical and moral decisions everyday.  I will demonstrate just how difficult law enforcement is and how thin the blue line can be.  Please join me next week for the final installment of my Troy graduate blog.