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"The Police In the history of the Eastchester Police Department, exactly one officer has died in the line of duty. Officer Frey died the year I was born, and the situation that led to his death would be resolved not by Eastchester cops, but by New York City Police Officers with an armored car. Frey, of course, was an exception to the rule. The Eastchester Police department usually deals with an inferior brand of criminal; our car was once broken into, only for the robber to find nothing worth stealing, but the thief then forgot the rolls of quarters from cars he had broken into down the road in our car. I have not often encountered police in hostile situations. Mostly, the cops do peacekeeper work. Aside from traffic direction, I have seen the police most often when they work in the schools in the DARE program, which is about avoiding drugs, tobacco, and alcohol. Each year officers go into 5th grade classrooms, teach, and learn all the kids’ names. Parents hear about the officers from their kids, whether they are funny or nice or strict, and then meet officers in person later. Kids start waving at patrol cars, and officers wave back. During the DARE program, the officers always talk about where kids can find them, and assure the kids they are around to help. Some act as buddies and some as authorities, but either way the kids all tend to feel really safe around them, and the parents come to as well. The Broken Windows theory states that cops become accessible to the neighborhood by monitoring it. It is possible, however, that they can be accessible to the neighborhood by teaching in it. A relationship can be built not on solving nonexistent problems, but on educating against the advent of problems."
--( posted on Feb 17, 2016, commenting on the post Assignment 2 )