In a time of social upheaval, with several urban communities learning the natural consequences of defunding the police, it’s good to receive a reminder of the invaluable services provided by a good police force.
And today that reminder comes from the police chief of the small town of Westfield, New York, one Corbin Meleen, according to the town’s website, who went above and beyond the call of duty in rectifying the situation of a little girl’s stolen bike.
Westfield resident Alese Kircher first posted Monday on Facebook a request for help to find her daughter Ellie’s stolen bike.
“Probably a long shot but I’ll try anyways. If anyone around Westfield sees this bike please let me know,” she wrote.
On Wednesday, Kircher shared on Facebook that Meleen had stopped by with a “spectacular surprise” Ellie.
“He stopped by this morning saying they looked at a couple suspected places with no luck, so he wanted to get her a new one,” Kircher wrote.
Westfield, New York, is home to not even 3,000 people, according to Census Reporter, so the police department is probably not that well staffed.
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Even so, the chief of the police department himself took such a personal interest in the case of a little girl’s stolen bike, he decided to take it upon himself to rectify the situation when the bike could not be found.
It’s good to be reminded that, despite some bad apples among the hundreds of thousands of police officers in the U.S., most cops are decent folks who enter their line of work to help their communities.
As seen on the home page for the Westfield Police Department, their stated purpose is “improving the quality of life by protecting lives and property, enforcing the laws of the State of New York and the United States Constitution, securing offenders, and responding to the needs of the people.”
When police have the support of their communities and vice versa, it’s truly a beautiful thing.
Too often, in the age of BLM and widespread defund-the-police movements, we forget the enormous good one kind police officer can do for an entire community.
Instead, communities begin to view police officers as enemies instead of assets.
Ironically, it’s the cities that most vociferously called for defunding their police who are reaping the rewards of that ill-thought-out policy.
Portland, Oregon, is currently in the middle of a public safety crisis, while other blue cities, such as New York City and Bloomington, Vermont, have voted on increasing funds for their police departments after the George Floyd protests and defund-the-police movement resulted in skyrocketing crime and massive manpower shortages in these cities.
If police departments got more recognition when a law enforcement officer saves a life or foils a robbery or even replaces a stolen bike for a little girl, it would be a step in the right direction on the road to recovery and healing for our nation.
