Your life is just another life, nothing different. You’re just putting pants on one leg at a time.  You start off waking up on one side of the bed next to my loving wife, whose hair is always a mess in the mornings.   Get dressed in my uniform, putting my badge on last. As you get dressed your whole demeanor changes.  You become quiet, stern and think of how the day might go. But something is different…You stop being the real you.  As you strap on your ballistic vest and tie your boots, then you are an office.   You walk down the halls to my two beautiful children, a happy sweet 4 year old baby girl and the tough little guy who’s 8.  You kiss your kids and your husband or wife goodbye or even good morning, make you’re bagged lunched; just the usual, PB&J sandwich and an apple.  Then step outside and into just another day on the job.  You sit down in your patrol car, turn the ignition, and reach for your police radio.  Letting all others know you are on duty.

First part of the day is trafficking, as you pull out of your driveway and onto the main road, you spot a car speeding by.  You pull the vehicle over, get out of your car cautiously.  You always wonder whether this will be your last traffic stop ever.  People are crazy out there.  You never know if the person behind the wheel has any kind of gun or tries to make a run.  Thank God as you finish writing the ticket and make it through another day.  So it’s back to your car to finish the rest of your day.  But then…

Two vehicles side right into each other.  The oil that spill out quickly starts burning and boiling off of the still-hot engines.  Causing the two cars to transform into one massive mess.  Though you're trained to give first aid and basic life support, you are silently thankful that an ambulance is already on scene.  You see paramedics talking to a bloodied driver in one of the vehicles.  There's a driver in the other car as well, but he's not moving.  Seeing no one else trying to help, you rush right over to him and try prying the door open but no use.  So you wrap your hand up in your jacket and punch the window open.  You start pulling the bloody body out of the car.  There is no help for this poor man as his heart had already stopped its wild beat from all the impact of the cars colliding into one another.

Worn out and thirsty from the day so far, you avoid doughnut shops at all cost so you don't play into the stereotype.  As soon as you walk in the door, the clerk greats you and asks you to deal with some teenagers who are causing a disturbance in the store.  Having to deal with the situation, the teens are a wild group of disrespectful boys who refuse to get out. You get aggregated and finally let it out and yell at them having to grab them by the arm to drag them outside.  You never do get your coffee.  After you leave the gas station, you find an empty parking lot to catch up on reports.  You park someplace where people can see you if they need help.

Finally time to go home…As you're pulling into your neighborhood, you notice a black Honda coupe in front of you is going side to side within its lane, slowing down, speeding up and braking erratically.  You become concerned that the driver is impaired, tired or sick.  Whatever the case, you know it requires further investigation.  Even though your shift ended 15 minutes ago, you still know it is part of the job to pull the car over.  When you approach the Honda, as you walk up you are hit by the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage.  The young driver's eyes are bloodshot and watery, and his speech was horrible.  After you've left your paperwork at the office, you make your way home.  Hopefully you don’t have any more issues on the way home.  You walk in your front door four hours later than you were supposed to.  You take off your uniform and slowly start becoming yourself.  Tired from a long day, you lay down in the warm bed.  Your last thoughts are about how happy you are to have the opportunity to be a police officer, and how thankful you are that you made it home safely for one more day.

Though out the daily life of a police officer many issues come across, and people honestly don’t respect them enough to really believe and see what these men and women do and how hard things are for them.  They might have done some harsh things that are looked down on but you don’t know what their day has been like.  You don’t know the struggle and sacrifices they make. They lose so much time with their family and friends because of the long hours and don’t get paid enough for all the things these amazing people have to go through.