Do we really understand the real dangers of being a Police officer?

Hardened criminals simply do not care who stands in their way when cornered.

Arecent attack on a Police vehicle with officers inside it in Lomolomo between Lautoka and Nadi highlight the dangerous situations these lawmen go through.

Hardened criminals simply do not care who stands in their way when cornered.

Sometimes the police officers are outnumbered and this could result in some serious harm to officers, luckily none has occurred so far.

People are quick at times to point fingers at our law enforcers when someone is injured during an arrest. Sure sometimes police officers have gone overboard in their arrest tactics but most times we forget to see the situation they are up against.

Crime nowadays has gone up many levels and each time the respect for police officers has dropped.

The quick money, and there is plenty, is at the forefront of such illegal activities and these criminals will not let that go too easily when a raid is done. Most of us know that the day-to-day work of a police officer always has an element of risk, considering the calls they attend to.

We see news stories of police officers either seriously assaulted or killed in some places around the world.

Fiji born Ronil Singh, a Newman police officer in the United States was killed in Modesto while carrying out his duties.

We know there are bad people out there who are willing to do us - and any law enforcement officer who gets in the way - harm.

But do you really understand the real dangers of being a police officer?

How an officer encounters suspects while attending to a report will determine the outcome of how the encounter will go.

Bu there are those few hardened criminals who have every intention of hurting or even killing police officers from the very start.

For those people, no matter what the officer may do, they intend to do harm.

These criminals have seen the inside of a cell for the better part of their lives and are like home to them. So when cornered, they fight to carry on with their illegal activities but if they get caught, it’s routine again.

So while most of us sleep peacefully each night, these men and women of the law are really putting their lives on the line to make sure we wake up to another day.

In future when we point a finger at these officers, let us think first of their families who have been left at home while they strive to keep our society as crime free as possible.