Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’

It’s Christmas Eve and you’re at home celebrating with your family. Your children and grandchildren are all excited about the presents under the tree. You’re also a little curious what’s under there with your name too. You forget about all the challenges you endured throughout the year, grateful that you are all together while the smells of Christmas dinner and your Christmas tree brings back memories of Christmas past.

As you enjoy this time with your family, the men and women serving in law enforcement are patrolling your neighborhood tonight – checking your property, your yard, your streets, looking for anything or anyone out of place. They are the ones that venture into the dark, not knowing what if anything awaits them, often to protect many they have never even met.

Your family celebrates Christmas while warm and safe indoors, maybe enjoying a few drinks in front of a warm fireplace. Your local law enforcement is working outside tonight, trying to stay warm, dealing with the winter elements – some years it’s freezing rain, snow, sometimes dangerous road conditions, or maybe even a blizzard.

They’re out there waiting for our 911 Dispatchers to advise them when someone else in the county needs their help.

You’ve got your kids with you, maybe grandkids, also grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc. The whole family is together for this joyous occasion. Your local law enforcement families are spending another holiday without their loved ones, without their hero.

This was his/her year to work. Hopefully they make the rotation next year so they can take time off to be with their families. These amazing law enforcement families understand their loved ones, their heroes, make these sacrifices to help keep their communities safe, to help people in need, and to do their little part to make our communities a better place for them to live in. These families understand sacrifice for the greater good – service before self.

Your Christmas Eve dinner is ready. All the family has pitched in to make a huge holiday feast for everyone there. The smell of Turkey, Ham, and warm pie fill the air, those smells that bring back all of those amazing Christmas memories. Your local law enforcement has been busy tonight so they haven’t had a chance to get much for a meal - chips and a pop at Kwik Trip or Casey’s, maybe a piece of pizza or pre-made sandwich. Later they’ll stop in to check on the folks keeping these stores open who are also sacrificing on Christmas, appreciative of a warm place to stop and take a break.

You’ve finally got the kids and/or grandkids settled down for the night, all excited about presents and wondering when Santa will arrive. If it’s not too late, as long as the officer lives in the area he/she is assigned to work tonight, they might get to stop by and say goodnight to the kids. If they’re too busy, they’ll just have to call when we can. They’ll wish them Merry Christmas over the phone and say goodnight to the kids.

Your kids are in bed and now its adult time - you sit and play cards, games, and visit with family and loved ones reminiscing about the night you just had and memories of Christmas past. All while your local law enforcement is patrolling your neighborhoods while thinking about a crash they worked a few months ago where they pulled two kids from the wreckage, two that didn’t make it. It’s hard to forget that reaction they get when they have to tell parents their kids are gone – or the emotional feeling of just wanting to go home and hug their kids and tell them that they love them. Every cop with kids has done that.

Memories we can’t forget, horrible tragedies we can’t unsee. They worry about those parents tonight who are hurting. They hope and pray they don’t get another crash like that tonight on Christmas.

Your kids wake you up early, all excited about opening Santa’s presents and celebrating Christmas Day. You’re rested and ready to share this amazing day with your family. Your local officers have been asleep for an hour or two before their kids are waking them up excited about opening Santa’s presents and celebrating Christmas Day.

They finally finished their shift a few hours earlier after a busy evening and quietly snuck into their homes around 5 a.m. They took off their uniforms, grabbed a quick snack from last night’s big meal, and headed to bed trying not to wake up the kids or their spouse. They’ll go downstairs now and see the kids open their gifts, while trying not to think about some of the things that they saw last night. So many things you can’t unsee when you’re a cop. Then it’s back to bed for a better part of Christmas Day. They’ll go back to work at 6 p.m. and do it all over again.

In spite all of the sacrifices many of our men and women serving will make this Christmas, and the anti-law enforcement rhetoric we endure from the main stream media and other radical groups, we remain very proud of this profession that we love. Our men and women are proud of their uniform, they’re proud of their badge, and they’re extremely proud of our flag. These men and women couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Helping you is their calling, it’s their passion, and it’s truly what motivates all of us who serve.

Much of this column is true to my memories of holidays over the years that I spent working away from Rosie and the kids. The intent of this column is not to make you feel sorry for law enforcement, it’s simply to remind you of some of the many sacrifices these men and women and their families make for our communities.

Hopefully it also makes you think about the sacrifices made by all our public safety partners serving our communities over the holidays – our 911 Dispatchers working to keep everyone safe, our local Ambulance and Fire Department members (many who are volunteers) working side by side with us on emergency calls, and the medical professionals saving lives at our area hospitals.

Our local tow companies who are out there helping us day and night. And don’t forget the men and women keeping our convenience stores open day and night. This Christmas, if you see your local law enforcement or public safety professionals out working the streets, take a minute to thank them for their service and sacrifice. Your “thank you” means a lot to all of them, especially during the holidays.

We are blessed to have heroes like this right here in our community. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers tonight so they can go home safely to their families.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from your friends at the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office.

Your Sheriff,

Scott

Photo:  Behind the Badge Sheriff Scott Rose

 

 

Dodge County Independent

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