Concerns of Police Survivors Annual Meeting

Last Saturday I attended our annual C.O.P.S. meeting. My husband accompanied me. We have speakers, eat a delicious lunch, have our meeting - a summation of the year along with a raffle and a little quiet time honoring those who left us all to soon. This year was a little different. For the last five or six years we have held our meeting at the Kirkland Police Department. Chief Olsen is a great person and leader. They had just moved the entire Police Dept. into an old Costco building. We were so blessed to get a personal tour of the facility. I asked if they had an opening-for me! There were humongous locker rooms for the officers and a separate locker room for the SWAT team, in addition to an indoor shooting range and beautiful offices. An old San Diego Police car, now with the Kirkland name on the seal graced the entryway along with pictures from the beginning of the department to present. The building was totally secure from "knuckleheads" as the Chief put it. We then had a delicious lunch followed by a speaker, Stacey Sanner. Stacey has worked in photography, fiction and non fiction writing for more than 20 years. Stacey moved to the Seattle area from New York in 2006. She had no past experience with law enforcement but wanted to interview officers on why they wanted to be in law enforcement, their daily routines and how they manage the danger. The hardest part was getting a law enforcement department to say "yes" and allow her to interview and photograph the officers. Most did not reply to her but the Seattle PD said yes. She interviewed and photographed 41 officers and self published a book. It is very well done and we really learn what officers go through on a daily basis. The theme of the meeting was a big "thank-you" to police everywhere for protecting us from what would otherwise be chaos. The three videos were personal notes of thanks from individuals in the general public for specific situations. They were very emotional and a far cry from what we are reading about currently in the media. We left a little early even though I accidentally left our car keys in the front seat of our locked vehicle. Thank God for AAA!