Police, Samaritans share safety bond

Last week’s annual Police Appreciation Night contained a few notable references to the relationship between police and the public. The awards night, organized by the Knights of Columbus, recognized average citizens who help out in incidents where police officers are involved. Some prevented a crime or lessened its impact, others took on a Good Samaritan role when someone was injured or in danger.

One reference to the public/police relationship quoted Sir Robert Peel, founder of the modern police service when he was Britain’s Home Secretary in the 1820s: “The police are the public and the public are the police.”

It doesn’t get much simpler. When police from the highest ranks on down see themselves as an extension of people’s desire for safety, orderliness and compassion and people accept that they have a role to play as well the system works as is should.

Twenty-one civilians honoured for 13 separate incidents exemplify that principle at work.

Some qualified through acts of bravery, like the man who saw a pickup truck plunge into an eight-foot-deep pond.

The driver had broken vertebrae in her neck and couldn’t escape. The man pulled her from the sinking truck and stayed with her in the water until emergency crews arrived.

Others inserted themselves into a crime scene, like the man who scared off an armed convenience store robber then followed him outside and called police. Or the woman who stopped a sexual assault and may have saved the victim’s life.

In each case people did more than just dial 911. Some put themselves in danger. Others took responsibility for the safety of someone in distress.

Not everyone would have acted, a fact that led to the other references to the police/public partnership. One of the citations notes: “in today’s society people are reluctant to get involved in situations.” Another praises a man came to the rescue of a pedestrian lying in the road after being struck by a hit-and-run driver then states, “Sadly, not everyone helped.”

Would most people, placed in those same situations, have done the right thing? Or would it be 10 or 20 or 30 per cent? And is reluctance to get involved a function of “today’s society?”

The number of people who took substantial action when they could more easily have passed by suggests the pool of Good Samaritans is a lot bigger than 30 per cent. And that people today are just as willing to help as were those in previous generations.

Police do see situations where someone could have helped and didn’t but we can all feel good about the number who did, and do. The public safety bond Sir Robert Peel described remains strong.