For most of us police officers are a part of our lives that, for the most part, goes unnoticed. Aside from an occasional parking or speeding ticket, the vast majority of the population only sees officers, but never deals with them. These men and women work very hard to keep our streets and neighborhoods safe while interfering very little into our personal lives.

My father was a police officer for over two decades with the Alaska State Troopers. From the experience of growing up with an officer I have developed the utmost respect for law enforcement officials. My father's friends on the force were my role models. Law enforcement is a big part of my background. I have even extolled the virtues of officers on this very website.

Recently, however, I had an encounter with an officer that has left me wondering about the conviction of my local police department. My niece, who is 19 years old, ran out of gas approximately one block from a gas station. She called me frantically to have me help. When I arrived there was an officer sitting in his vehicle behind her with his lights on. My niece was seated in her truck. Wanting to get her vehicle out of traffic as soon as possible I parked my own vehicle and quickly started in on pushing hers to the side. Due to the situation, we were only able to push the vehicle straight ahead, uphill.

The vehicle is a full size F-150 pickup, not exactly the easiest for two people to push, let alone up hill. As we fought to push the truck up hill our faithful peace officer remained seated in his vehicle watching. He didn't exit his vehicle to assist nor did he even speak to either me or my niece. He sat, and watched.

Now before you accuse me of expecting too much from this officer, remember the situation. Myself and a nineteen year-old-girl pushing a full-size pickup up hill. With one other adult male we could have completed this task in about 2 minutes. As it was it took us nearly 10 minutes of grunting and groaning to get the truck off of the road.

When we had finished, I asked the officer why he had not helped. His reply (delivered in a pretty fierce manner, I might add) was that the Minot Police Department has a policy prohibiting officers from assisting civilians with pushing their vehicles. I asked him why, and he directed me to contact his supervisor and would speak no more with me on the subject. Perhaps it was somewhat crabby of me, but I did tell the officer that I hoped somebody would be around to help his niece or daughter out should she run out of gas.

Upon arriving back at work I contacted a supervisor, and then a captain at the Minot P.D. I was told by both that the policy the officer had referred to did in fact exist. I asked why such a policy needed to exist and was told that the officer could have sustained a back injury while pushing the vehicle. I asked if his officers were allowed to push their own vehicles out when they were stuck in the winter, and he said that they were. So from fear of a back injury this armed member of the Minot Police Department could not be bothered with exiting his vehicle and pushing for two minutes.

This policy seems silly to me. Our officers have a motto, "To protect and to serve." I did not see much service on that day. To expect an officer, who is armed in order to protect citizens against all manners of dangers, to help push a vehicle 15 feet is entirely out of bounds, according to the current leadership at the Minot P.D. I, of all people, understand the need of an employer to protect its employees from injuries, but this policy takes it too far. If an officer can't be expected to push a car lest he be injured, then where does it stop? What does the officer do when arresting a violent drunk? Officers are also required to pass a physical exam and a physical agility test. Wouldn't such tests tell the Police Department if an officer were going to be prone towards back injuries?

There are people who's professions require a lot more strenuous work then pushing cars around (e.g. construction workers) yet there is no worry about their backs. My whole life, since I was a little boy, I have looked at police officers as somebody who would always be their to help. I feel let down now by the bad attitude of one officer and the silliness of the policy-makers at the Minot P.D.

I don't know if policies like this exist nation-wide nor do I mean this to be an indictment of all police officers. For every poor officer or out-of-touch commander I'm sure there are hundreds of other fine officers doing their jobs daily.

If one of those officers had shown up that day you probably wouldn't be reading this.

Perhaps somebody in charge down at Minot City Hall or in the local police department will read this and see how policies such as the one I've described do nothing but alienate officers from the general public.

Minot citizens, should you agree with me, you can contact Police Chief Dan Draovitch at the following address/phone number:

Dan Draovitch
Chief of Police
Minot Police Department
515 2nd Avenue SW
Minot, ND 58701-3739
(701) 852-0111

The Mayor's Council for a Safe Community may also like hearing your opinions:

(701) 839-0488