“Today I will not answer the radio call that your boyfriend has come home drunk and is beating you again. Today I will not answer the radio call that your 16 year old daughter, who is very responsible, is four hours late coming home from school. Today I will not answer the radio call that your store has been robbed or your house has been burglarized. Today I will not stop a drunk driver from killing someone. I will not catch a murderer or car thief. Today I will not answer the call that a man has a gun or tried to abduct a child or that someone has been stabbed or has been in a terrible accident. Today I will not save your child that you locked in a car or the child you were too busy to watch who went outside and fell in a swimming pool, but that I revived. No, today I will not do that. 

Why?

Because today I was killed by a drunk driver while I was helping push a disabled car off the highway. Today I was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop to simply tell someone that they had a tail light out. Today I was killed in a traffic accident, rushing to help a citizen. Today I was shot and killed serving a warrant to a known drug dealer. Today I was killed when I came by to do a wellfare check on a man because his family was too busy. Today I was killed trying to stop a bank robbery. Today I was killed doing my job. 

A chaplain and an officer will go to my house and tell my family that I won’t be coming home today. The flags will be flown at half mast at many police stations today, but many will not know why. There will be a funeral, and my fellow officers will come, a twenty-one gun salute will be given, and taps will be played as I am laid to rest. 

My folded flag will be placed on the mantle at home, and my family will mourn. 

Know that I would come to your rescue today, like I have every other day, if it weren’t for the call “Officer Down”.