Law enforcement personnel are not like fire extinguishers whereby, when one is needed, you simply follow the signage “in case of emergency break glass.” However, despite the odds borne of the cops:citizens ratio—approximately 900,000 police officers for roughly 324,000,000 population—it is not really difficult to spot a cop in our everyday society. Without road signs, almost like roving landmarks, any motorist on long-distance travel can chronicle where they are/were by noticing police cruisers announcing department names often including the city. For a geography buff, this makes much more sense. For someone who thinks a map is a guttural sound an animal makes, well, happy motoring with that free-spirit mindset. It’s all good.
Contrary to pop-culture belief systems (and humor which is like the donuts, stale), police officers do not gravitate and loiter at donut shops. Most cops despise donuts because of the non-nutritious donut, not because of the antiquated stigma attached to the cops/donuts fallacy—although that’s a close-second reason. Even the title of this article you are reading engenders a throw-back played-out statement often used to jab and jeer at the presence of cops or, rather, the lack thereof. Since a cop for every human being is utopian, the saying “Where’s a cop when you need one?” is as fresh as dinosaur snot.
By and large, cops are not undiscoverable phantoms or disinterested shape-shifters.
I am not embarrassed to admit I was often called in to the police watch commander’s office to confront yet another lecture about the importance of conserving fuel. I’m as green as they come but not when it comes to catching criminals. As a cop, I stayed on the move, thus burning gas. To be clear and fair, these slap-on-the-hand lectures happened when per-gallon fuel prices across the nation skyrocketed after a post-9/11 hunt for Saddam Hussein and our military conflicts in the Middle East theater heated up—crude oil costs can be a crude awakening. But I didn’t mind the lectures since I was producing arrests by remaining mobile enough to combat criminals who commit crimes as roving creatures. Can’t necessarily stick-up a bank from a bus bench.
Idling for a cop is typically relegated for report-writing after catching a bad guy on the move.
Obviously, our national standard when you have an emergency and require police assistance is resorting to the 9-1-1 system. Conversely, there are ample locations where a cop can be fortuitously found. Often, it is by fate and happenstance as motorists or bicyclists or walkers are tooling around the lay of the land when issues arise and cops are needed.
This was illustrated recently in an impromptu life-saving situation triggered by a young mom whose infant was not breathing. She raced to the hospital in her car. As she and another family member turned the corner destined for a hospital nearby, she saw a sheriff’s deputy in a fully-marked police cruiser stopped at a lighted traffic signal. The desperate and panicked mom halted and, via window-to-window contact, informed the cop of her baby’s fleeting life signs.
The deputy whips his cruiser around in a U-turn and lands on the grassy shoulder. The mom’s car parked slightly ahead on the same grass. She exits with the evident signs of duress, holding an infant whose tiny arms dangled without the typical reaction of a baby not feeling that certain mainstay equilibrium/gravity. The newborn was void of reaction, ostensibly lifeless.
The deputy sheriff raced to the mom, took hold of the breathless baby, and gently placed the infant on the grass. His posture indicated he quickly assessed vitals and performed CPR. A basic tenet of any law enforcement training academy and regular recertification thereafter, no cop is without a CPR card attesting ability to help restore life. The video footage recorded by the deputy’s in-car video system captured the entire breathtaking and life-saving instance.
In short time, the deputy reassesses (that proverbial split-second decision-making some folks discount in police work) and opts to transport the baby in his arms, in his police cruiser, the short distance to the local hospital. The mom trailed behind. Why would a cop transport a baby in his arms while also driving? Albeit unorthodox, unsafe, and perhaps not exactly textbook CPR…the human psyche often informs extraordinary steps to take which may not align with ordinary circumstances. In a case of the ends justifies the means, he maintained breaths on behalf of that baby while getting the seemingly life-less tot to an advanced life support (ALS) facility. Buying time is the investment with tremendous dividends.
I’ve been searching for the end result to place a happy ending to what you just read. I have neither good nor bad news. I bring fabulous news!
Baby Kingston survived, thanks to Marion County, Florida sheriff’s K9 Deputy Jeremie Nix. Both Deputy Nix and his canine were headed home when the Baby Kingston incident turned the corner and fell into their lap.
In all, it is not foolproof that any citizen will stumble upon a cop when one is needed. Despite the odds (citizen:cop ratio), it does not seem to be a longshot at times—unless you live where hyenas roam, where you may have fortune to bump into a game warden.
In my police retirement, I take notice of my surroundings no differently than when I were serving in my jurisdiction. Given that, cops are really not that hard to find. Our example examined in the attached video footage herein attests to one demonstration which happened to be a life-and-death incident. Johnny-on-the-spot turned into Jeremie-on-the-spot.
ER physicians at Ocala Regional Medical Center credit Deputy Nix’s quick actions with saving the newborn boy’s life. Moreover, here is yet another example of police body-cam or dash-cam technology capturing and providing factual footage of everyday police work.
As we celebrate and/or memorialize National Police Week 2018 and the inherent sorrows and/or joys, this story started with the former and catered the latter. This kind of chapter will rejuvenate any anti-police rhetoric that deputy may have been enduring. Life has a way of balancing the scales and reminding that the mission one avows may not materialize as one predicts or wants, but staying the course has enrichment. Unequivocally, blowing life into a newborn on the brink of breathless is career-filling…whether it is through rookie years or nearing retirement.
