It’s been a while since I’ve been able to write. My position at the department became full-time a few months ago and I’ve been getting settled in. I am loving it! Wednesday night I attended an event called Tree of Angels that gave me another glimpse into the hearts and minds of law enforcement. Tree of Angels is a gathering of families who have lost someone to a violent crime. Names are called and the families are given an opportunity to go place an ornament on the tree for their loved one. It was a beautiful and moving service. The picture is one of the trees at the end of the service.
One of the things that I saw that really stuck with me was with the officers, detectives, and others who were in attendance. As names were called, the family went forward. If the detective that worked the case was present, they would join the family at the tree. For some that went forward the medical examiner also went with them. At one point in the evening I saw a woman that looked a little nervous and unsure about how the service was going to go. A detective walked up to her, gave her instructions, and assured her that he was going up with her. There was a visible calm that came over her. I was really moved by them taking the time to be there.
It got me thinking about how involved officers, detectives, and others can get on the scenes that they are on. When something happens to someone, they want to help make things right for that person. It happens all the way from the smallest to the biggest cases. One of the officers called me one day because they found a phone that they thought could possibly belong to one of my co-workers at the time. The phone ended up not belonging to her, but was so happy the officer took the time if the phone had been hers. I don’t know what all he did to get into the phone, but he had to do some work to find the potential owner.
One case I know everyone from Galveston is familiar with is the Little Jacob case. For those not from Galveston, a little boy’s body washed up on the shore with no indication of who he was or what could have happened. They named him Little Jacob and the investigation began. The body was found in October and gathering pieces of the story and evidence took months. It was June when the child was identified as Jayden and his mother and her girlfriend were charged with dumping the boy’s body. I know the detective assigned to the case spent a lot of time and wanted there to be an answer. He spoke in one of the articles written about the case of how he had to view the boy’s body as a piece of evidence to be able to keep working on the case. While some could view this as him being removed and not caring, I think it is a strong example of how much he does care. If he allowed himself to be caught up in it being the body of a child he probably wouldn’t have made it through the investigation.
This was also true in the response to the Santa Fe High School shooting. A couple of the Galveston officers who responded took actions that helped to save lives of some of the students that were injured. Those officers then went to the hospital to see the students and meet their families. It was a healing process for the officers and for the families. Then those same officers went to Santa Fe High when it was time for the students to return to school to show their support for them.
After officers have been on scenes, they will talk about families and wonder how they are doing after the death of a loved one. They want to know if the person that was transported to the hospital from the wreck is alive or if they passed away. They often meet someone on a call that really touches their heart and they will go back and check on them routinely or help them out in whatever way is needed. They want to know if the talk they had with the teenager (or adult for that matter) made a difference in his or her actions. They want to be able to offer a solution or something tangible for the person that is hurting. Then they have to do their best to leave all of that behind when they take off their uniform and offer that same care and investment to their families. It’s certainly a difficult balance to find and life that requires so much of those that choose to be in law enforcement.