A fair reflection of those entrusted with public’s safety

While certain elements of the media remain fixated on exposing malfeasance in the ranks of Massachusetts police departments, we’d like to show examples that reflect how the vast majority of law enforcement conduct themselves.

Valor in the line of duty

In Townsend, one police sergeant was recently honored for actions taken while serving on one of this country’s largest police departments.

Police Sgt. David Phillips, a former Los Angeles police officer, was awarded the Medal of Valor, that department’s highest honor, for helping save the life of a fellow officer while a member of the LAPD Gang Unit.

In April 2008, Phillips was part of a team searching for a known armed gang member wanted on warrants for carjacking and threatening to kill police.

When unit members located the suspect, he fled in a motor vehicle, crashed into Phillips’ and his partner’s cruiser, and then emerged and began shooting at another officer nearby.

One of Phillips’ colleagues sustained a gunshot wound in the chest, saved only by a U. S. Marine Corps pin that deflected the bullet. Phillips and other colleagues returned fire, killing the suspect.

Phillips worked for LAPD for another three years, before transferring in 2011 to the Townsend Police Department, where he has since risen to the rank of sergeant.

Phillips returned to Los Angeles on Sept. 21 to accept the honor.

“This wasn’t something that I expected, but it’s definitely an honor that they saw this case and thought to issue these medals to us,” said Phillips.

Sgt. Phillips is now both a day- and early night-shift supervisor, and serves as a firearms and active shooter response instructor.

“All of us at the Townsend Police Department are proud of Sgt. Phillips and the way he laid his life on the line for a fellow officer. It is an honor to call him a colleague,” said Townsend Police Chief James Sartell.

Reaching out to the community

Community policing constitutes one of the key elements in earning the confidence and respect of those they serve.

In recognition of that essential public- safety policy, the Lowell Police Department recently hosted its third annual Youth Outreach Day, in conjunction with other area law enforcement agencies and community partners.

The Lowell Police Department puts a high priority on forming positive relationships with community members, especially the youngsters.

Held Sept. 20, Youth Outreach Day represents a funfilled way to help police and community members connect.

In addition to the LPD, the Lowell Fire Department, the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, Massachusetts State Police, the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office, and the National Park, Dracut, and Umass Lowell police departments all had vehicles available for children and adults to check out.

A video game truck was on hand for those in attendance, who enjoyed free pizza, drinks and ice cream.

The Lowell Police Superior and Patrol Officers unions provided raffle baskets, and the Greater Lowell Health Alliance donated backpacks full of school supplies.

Remembering ranks of the fallen

A police officer leaves for work each day knowing it could be their last. It’s an inescapable reality that comes with the badge.

In a poignant reminder, family members, police officers, and elected officials gathered in the newly-renovated park next to the State House on Sept. 27 to unveil 13 new names — some dating back 115 years — on the state’s Law Enforcement Memorial.

Names now inscribed in stone include the most recent, an officer whose tragic death captured headlines and broke hearts.

Trooper Tamar Anoush Bucci, a 2020 graduate of the State Police Academy, was killed less than two years later when an oil tanker truck struck her cruiser on Interstate 93 in Stoneham.

Gov. Maura Healey, who spoke of a recent police academy graduation she attended, noted that those officers took “the same oath that every officer whose name is written on this memorial took.”

Then, the governor paused briefly before recalling Bucci’s graduation ceremony.

“I was at Tamar’s graduation. I never would have imagined — that just a short time — we would lose her,” Healey said.

A number of guests in the audience wore T-shirts and sweatshirts bearing the surname of Lawrence Police Officer Jacob Eyssi, who died in 1993 several years after he was seriously injured in the line of duty.

In addition to Bucci and Eyssi, the fallen officers recognized Wednesday were:

• Patrolmanwilliam Ahern (Boston PD, end of watch 1918);

• Officer Charles Alexander Christie (Dartmouth PD, 1966);

• Sgt. Harold Collins ( Metropolitan Police, 2012);• Patrolman Edward Day (Boston PD, 1918);

• Patrolman Joseph Francis Ebelein (Boston PD, 1918);• Patrolman John Fitzgerald (Boston PD, 1908);

• Officer Frederick Louis Forni (Saugus PD, 2021)

• Patrolman Frederick Joseph Gibney (Boston PD,

1918);

• Officer Loi Hu Ha (Umass Memorialmedical Center PD, 2021);

• Patrolman Lawrence Nagle (Boston PD, 1918);

• Patrolman Peter Neary (Boston PD, 1918).

“I never take for granted what it is they are doing, each day and every day,” Healey said of law enforcement officers. “Because you never know what might happen.”

Yes, we realize people don’t shed their human frailties when they don that uniform.

Mistakes — sometimes fatal — have been made, but that’s an aberration, not the norm.