I speak and write often about the importance of public trust in government, and how distrust and disrespect lead to the dismantling of public institutions.
Policing is the front line of that battle. People seem to love or hate “the police” as an institution depending on how they feel about the laws and the order that the police are tasked with enforcing.
Police throughout history have been used to enforce slavery for plantation owners and the governments that they controlled, to protect the US Capitol from insurrectionists, and to protect law-abiding residents from gangs that extort money from them and fire bullets past their children at neighborhood playgrounds.
When a community supports enforcement of its laws, peace and prosperity grow. My own respect for law enforcement has grown during my time in this job, and it grew even more this week. I want yours to grow as well.
Start by listening to Behind the Badge, my interview with Anne Arundel Police Chief Amal Awad on the latest episode of Pittman and Friends Podcast. Our chief has a way of reminding us that every officer is a human being. “There are hearts beating behind our badges,” she says, and the stories she tells from her childhood, from her decades as an officer, and from her time as a chief suggest that the heart behind hers is very large.
On Wednesday morning, I attended the Fallen Officers Memorial Service at our Police Training Academy. It’s an annual event that Chief Awad started early in her tenure, and during our podcast she said something that reminded me how important that it was for me to be there.
I had asked her to make a recruitment pitch to young people considering a career in law enforcement, and I expected her to describe the rewards of service and to sugar-coat the challenges. She didn’t. She said they were looking for special people, people who were willing to give their life for another. That was a powerful thing to say, and it reminded me why Wednesday’s ceremony matters.
The annual event has grown. It included the Maryland Secretary of State Police, the Fort Meade Garrison Commander, and a room full of law enforcement leaders from across the region. We remembered AACOPD Officers Paul Werner and Paul Mitchell, and I and Chief Awad shared remarks. But then came our keynote speaker, an extraordinary woman in civilian clothes named Mrs. Debbie Sorrells. She is the mother of fallen Baltimore County Police Officer Amy Sorrells Caprio.
Amy died on May 21, 2018, at the age of 29. She was attempting to apprehend a burglary suspect in a stolen vehicle. He drove the car directly at her, and she was pronounced dead upon arrival at Franklin Square Hospital.
I got those details from the Officer Down Memorial Page. Mrs. Sorrells did not share them. She explained to us that she does not focus on the tragedy. She is committed to celebrating Amy’s life.
She told us that Amy didn’t like to run, even though she managed to do it at the Police Academy, and joked that it’s why she became the goalie on her soccer team. She told us that she was a fierce protector, of animals, of kids, and of the soccer goal. She told us how Amy had only become a police officer three years before her death, and how happy she was to have finally found a purpose in life, a true passion where she could serve every day.
Mrs. Sorrells also told the story of a dragonfly that appeared at Amy’s memorial service. It flew over the shoulders of two long-time family friends, then circled Amy’s casket, and then flew over to be with the sea of blue uniforms, the family of police officers who were there to pay their respects.
She said that Amy’s greatest gift to her was connecting their family to the police family. She believed that Amy had more work to do on this earth, more time to heal communities, more service to give. But rather than mourn the fact that Amy would be unable to finish her work, she celebrates the truth that so many officers are here to carry it forth.
Thank you, Mrs. Debbie Sorrells, Officer Amy Sorrells Caprio, and the men and women who have chosen to serve, knowing that doing so may mean giving your life for another.
And to those whose historical relationship with policing makes trust hard to muster, please note that the officers don’t write the laws that they are tasked with enforcing. As long as we protect our constitutional rights and the fundamentals of democracy, the power that we entrust to our police officers will be used not to divide us, but to protect us. And for that, we are grateful.
Until next week…