Dear Valued Friends and Peers,
You know, the COPS site on my server has tended to leave a big question mark
in the minds of some people, especially my family, and why the Lord has me
involved in some of the things I am concerning the law enforcement community.
A recent high profile child abduction and arrest has brought back some old
memories which are the foundation of that, and raised an old ire. Let me
explain.
Many, many years ago when I first gained access to the Internet and was fooling
around with this new "toy," I innocuously stopped by the Christian Police
Officers board on AOL. It had not seen much activity so I posted to all the
old screen names listed and started a conversation, wondering what it was
like to be in this line of work. In a short time I was spending regular time
with a retired female California Correctional/Administration officer, a patrol
Sergeant from Ohio, and a patrol officer from a mid-sized Pacific Southwest
department. We subsequently spent a number of months going back and forth
as they exchanged stories and jokes and outrageous tales exclusive to the
field.
At one point, at the passage of a liberal national child sexual predator
law that I can't remember specifically, as opposed to efforts to make it
easier for prosecutors to petition the courts to declare a sex offender a
sexually dangerous person and hold them, the officer from the Southwest was
having a hard time with it. He was young and not a veteran yet, gung-ho,
and a father of small children himself. He was angry, voicing the logical
flaws inherent in such laws and the subsequent dangers to society, especially
the young and innocent. Very angry. I was concerned about him, and at that
time unqualified to counsel with him from knowledge and experience, approached
the only LE related minister I knew of at that time, Pastor Steve Ballinger
from Shield of Faith, Harvest Christian Fellowship, Riverside, where I go
to church, to intervene.
The officer was counseled online with by the staff, life went on, and we
lost contact. I know he served as a school resource officer after that, and
I don't think he still works in law enforcement today. That event led to
a subsequent chain of events over the years that put me in the company of
every kind of cop imaginable, from huge bureaucracies like the NYPD and
LAPD/Sheriff's Departments, to two and three man rural agencies where the
Chief works more patrol hours than his subordinates, and even a few retired
Federal LEO's and agents. Ultimately it was this one Christian -- a brother in the
Lord -- dealing with the absurdities of this sometimes violent line of work;
the institutional lunacy he appropriately labeled "The Deal" that the Lord
laid it on my heart to support the Christian men and women of professional
law enforcement more proactively.
And it is a hard thing.
God bless and strengthen the honorable man and women of the Citrus County
Sheriff's Department as they deal with this trial, and may the Lord have
provided a solid Christian representation to minister effectively within
that agency during these times. God bless and guide Citrus County Sheriff
Jeff Dawsy as he leads his department and navigates them through this tragedy, and
likewise the many departments and agencies like this nationwide who will
continue to face scenarios like this, as they seek to protect and to serve.
Or at least try to.
The ministries represented at this site are behind you. 
Fast forward to today, March 2005. The February abduction
of Jessica Marie Lunsford from her home in Florida and the subsequent arrest
of multiple offender John Evander Couey, who confessed the crime to investigators
after taking a lie-detector test, brings the personal frustrations and anger
of this one Southwest patrol officer flooding back to mind. It seems his
anger was justified; his logical, analytical views formed by dealing one
on one with the criminal element validated, and at a terrible price.
Citrus County Sheriff Jeff Dawsy's frustration and anger were
barely veiled in his public appearances since this case was resolved. I have
no doubts there are more than one Deputy walking around that agency with
smoke coming out of their ears at the reality of this death. A predator that
should have been in prison was allowed loose, while those professionals tasked
with protecting the young, the innocent, and the defenseless, are once again
left to deal with the fallout.
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