Cops
off-duty givers
Police are well known for their abiding commitment to the communities
they serve all over the world. But it seems that something about the
police psyche keeps cops giving of themselves off the job as well.
Their strong, years-long connections with a range of charities
to which they devote endless hours of their private time are classic
examples of their out-of-hours generosity.
Dressed in their uniforms off duty, some visit terminally ill children
in hospital cancer wards. Others willingly humiliate themselves in
public albeit laughingly through the annual Bluey Day head-shaving
event.
Just last month, five SA police officers gave, in addition to their
own time, substantial sums of their own money to raise funds for the
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation of Australia (Cops to hit the road
from Surfers to Sydney).
The officers took a charity cycle ride from Sydney to Surfers Paradise,
but covered the costs of airfare, accommodation, food, equipment,
fuel, and bike maintenance themselves.
But police officers do not go home after the odd charity event and
simply switch off from the theme of off-duty sacrifice. For many,
it carries over into other areas of their lives.
Constable Mark Altmann is about to support his best mate who, without
the gift of sight, plans to swim the English Channel in August (SA
cop in the English Channel). Constable Altmann will as the charity
cyclists did willingly give his time, and pay all his own expenses.
And Senior Constable Bob Stewart could, on his time off, have ignored
a commotion that turned out to be a riverside killing (Acts to
ensure justice). Instead, he chose to give of himself. Had he
not, a violent murder suspect would likely have escaped into the community.
Some police officers speculate that they give so much off duty as
a natural extension of their strongly service-orientated role on duty.
We might never unearth the workings of that police psyche but, in
the meantime, lets hope that society values it, and cops never lose
it.
Extra special
One can feel quite moved when, at the SA Police Anzac Memorial Service,
one stands before the brass plaques that bear the names of SA police
officers lost in war last century.
To ones mind come thoughts of each young cop scarcely different
from those of today who left behind his job, home, family and friends
to defend his nation.
All Anzacs are, of course, owed a debt of gratitude by every Australian.
But those who left the local battle against crime for a far bigger
one on the world stage, against tyranny, seem somehow extra special.
