POAM News Father Writes Grateful Letter to West Bloomfield Police Department

Written to the West Bloomfield Police Department, from a thankful father.

Note: This letter has been edited for grammatical purposes only. It has been published in it’s original form, otherwise.

“Recently I have been having some trouble with one of my daughters behavior. Officers have been called to my house on a few occasions to try and diffuse some argumentative behavior.

First off, each officer that came to my house was extremely professional, very nice, understanding, and exercised extreme patience with the situation. They showed compassion and were sympathetic to a really good dad trying to protect his daughter, who he loves obviously unconditionally.

How do you teach that to people? I don’t think you can. I was fortunate enough to be in a city with a police department that, in my opinion, is the best. I especially noticed how young most of the officers were who were helping my family through these tough days. I thought about that while I stayed with my daughter trying to arrange the proper help for her.

Maybe the youth of these officers is what contributed to their willingness to help my daughter. They helped her safely get to the proper facility and with the great potential to get the proper help.

I guess things could have gone in a different direction. Often, all you see or hear on TV is about how police officers are caught in bad situations. They sometimes making mistakes, which the media and uneducated average person blows out of proportion. This makes it more dangerous and more difficult for police officers to do their job.

We need more positive stories showing the true life and job of a police officer, what they do, not just chase after bad guys.

I got a different picture of how often, how many times officers have to deal with family problems, siblings fighting, domestic violence. I use the term “domestic violence” cautiously, because it sounds so much worse than sometimes it really is.

I want to commend your police department from top to bottom, including the Sargent that came to the hospital at midnight, to talk to me.

I heard over your officers radio, it appeared that there was something in the water that night, super busy with calls, emergencies, situations, one after another.

I said to myself, “Wow, these guys are running from one problem to the next.” I know that is a nice way to put it, but it’s not that simple. There are a lot of dangerous people out there and it’s truly remarkable the lack of respect and appreciation many citizens have for their police. Reason I say that is because in between these other dangerous situations, there is a situation like mine which required a delicate touch.

Again, how do you teach an officer to deal with each situation for what it is? I could understand an officer not having the patience necessary to help control a situation like I had.

“I know I’m rambling a little. I’m not a great writer, I just write from my heart how I feel.”

I can’t thank your officers enough, from the bottom of my heart, for helping me help my daughter.

I want to do something special for the police department, to show my sincere gratitude and appreciation. I just have not figured out how to do that.

First thing I wanted to do is write this letter so these efforts don’t go without recognition.

I get upset with this so called millennial generation, I just don’t get it. But then I deal with these young officers who are part of this up and coming new generation! It goes to show that generalizing about a generation, a race, a group of people, is not fair.

With all due respect, I’m not sure if this situation were to arise again, maybe somewhere else where the officers were veterans, or just older, the situation may have been different.  Even myself, as a 50 year old man, have little or less patience when it comes to dealing with our youth.

I want you to know how incredible your officers are, and were, in dealing with my family. I don’t want to use names because I don’t want to leave anyone out. However, I hope you look into who was involved in helping resolve my situation and let them know what a great service they did for a really good caring loving family.

I hope others take time to say thank you or to share a story of how wonderful their police department is. I am tired of seeing the lack of care and the protests throughout the country any time something goes wrong. People, kids are often clueless and don’t see or understand the big picture.

“I want to say, I love my police department. I love and respect all officers out there doing their job keeping us safe.”

I will be either copying or writing another letter to the POAM. They should also be aware of the efforts of your truly special police officers helping my family. I raised money for over 5 years after I graduated high school as a telemarketer for the POAM, so maybe this is karma coming back around to me.

Often the stories that should be reported on, go unnoticed. That should not be the case here.

My daughter is now getting the help she needs. She didn’t need to be thrown in jail, because that probably would have made the overall situation and recovery much harder. That’s why I am writing this letter. The officers involved need to know how I appreciate everything they did to keep her safe and diffuse the situation before it got worse.

In conclusion, I guess maybe I hope you share my letter, or experience with your whole police force. They need to know that citizens like myself really care and appreciate the work you do, day in day out. We understand the risk involved in just doing their job.

I hope this letter really shows my appreciation, because you cant see the emotional tears running down my face as I write this.

Again, from  the bottom of my heart. THANK YOU ALL!”