An Open Letter to the People We Serve and Protect

TheWatch

Published in

Homeland Security

5 min readMay 21, 2016

Hey America! Sleep Well, We have the Watch

Dear America,

Good night, sleep well, we have you covered. So just who are “we?” Well, allow us to introduce ourselves and tell you a little about what it is exactly we do. We are your fellow citizens, next door neighbors, parents at a PTO meeting, the woman in line at Starbucks, the peewee league soccer coach, or singing off key a few pews away at worship service. At work we wear shirts and ties, bunker gear, badges, flight suits, camouflage, body armor, flotation devices, and an eclectic mix of outfits depending on thelocation. Like many of you, we work in cubicles and offices but also in fire houses, police stations, lonely highways, open deserts, aircraft, military installations, cutters/boats, and on foot or horseback. Have you guessed yet? We are the men and women of homeland security, defense, law enforcement, and emergency medical services.

One thing we really would like you to know about us is that Hollywood and TV almost always portrays us incorrectly and gets it totally wrong. On one extreme, we are portrayed as superheroes possessing amazing powers and equipment; we can solve any crime expeditiously, and rescue everyone in the nick of time. We, in the end, always defeat the bad guys who are incompetent. On the other extreme we are portrayed as incompetent buffoons, uncaring, excessively violent, or corrupt officials.

The truth is somewhere in between. We as ordinary people sometimes are called upon to do extraordinary things. At times our equipment and technology is pretty good, not as good as what is good as seen on TV, but most of the time it is not. We do the best we can with the tools we have been given by you the people. We are a reflection of the society we all are part of, meaning mostly good hard working people, but some bad apples can be found among us, just like anywhere else. But they are few and far between, a lot fewer than the media would have you believe. And the bad guys are usually not as incompetent as on TV either. Additionally, the bad guys can be things other than people: severe weather, fire, flood, earthquakes, volcanoes, narcotics, stupidity, indifference, accidents, medical conditions, or any number of innocuous things. That is part of our challenge, the enemy is a chameleon, constantly changing, and always full of surprises

A major challenge with the enemies and challenges we battle on your behalf is that they do not keep office hours.

Because of this, we must be ready to respond twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred sixty five days of the year. Holidays, weekends, and the dead of night are usually when we engage in battle. Sometimes we get to choose the time, place, and conditions of the fight, but usually not. Our battlefields are burning buildings, mangled autos, crack houses, flooded streets and rivers, floundering boats, cubicles, dispatch centers, border crossings, airport, and the back of ambulances. Our tools are the jaws of life, fire engines, police cruisers, ambulances, Coast Guard cutters, helicopters, satellites, computer terminals, and every other tool we can morally, ethically, and legally use. Why? Because this is our home too. Protecting and serving you, is also protecting and serving our families, friends, neighbors, communities, and nation.

Unfortunately, we see many of you on the worst days of your lives. Accidents, crime scenes, fires, medical emergencies, search and rescue, domestic disputes; we are there for you. It is not the just hours, working conditions, or that we see the best and worst of people that can make our jobs difficult. Partially it can be the endless hours of monotony, punctuated by moments of sheer terror. We not only run towards the chaos, and gunfire, we are often the first ones there. Many of us regularly face the highest rates of work related injury, cancer, stress related illnesses, and suicide.

So why do we do it? We often ask ourselves that very question. Partially, because someone has to stand as a barrier to the chaos, some out of a sense of duty or service, others because it is a family legacy. Whatever our reasons, we will continue to perform our duties to the best of our abilities. All we ask is that you continue to support us, help when asked, and try to understand we are just trying to do our jobs. We will not run, hide or falter. So take comfort, sleep well, we have the watch.