Our View: Police put their lives on the line every time they clock in

Talk about it

How do they do it? That’s a question many of us may have asked ourselves over the last month as we’ve read or heard about three concrete examples of area police officers risking their lives in the line of duty.

On Saturday a Maplewood police officer was shot and killed while responding to a carjacking near Lake Phalen in St. Paul.

Later that day the suspect believed to be the shooter attacked a St. Paul police officer before the suspect was shot and killed.

Woodbury police were one of the neighboring agencies who offered help to St. Paul and Maplewood agencies as they attempted to track and arrest the suspects believed to be responsible in the shooting death of Maplewood officer Sgt. Joseph Bergeron.

Woodbury police canine officers assisted in an investigation to recover potential evidence following the shooting, said Todd Johnson, deputy director for Woodbury Public Safety.

While Maplewood police used many of their resources to assist in the manhunt following the shooting, Woodbury patrol officers covered the south Maplewood area for routine calls.

Woodbury patrol officers will do it again Thursday to allow Maplewood police officers to attend the memorial service for Bergeron.

The traumatic police shooting in nearby east St. Paul comes on the heels of an April 15 domestic call turned shooting in Woodbury where a Woodbury police officer was shot as he approached the residence. The officer returned fire and killed the suspect. The incident is still under investigation.

And on March 29 a Cottage Grove police officer making a traffic stop was dragged more than 500 feet by a vehicle before he shot and killed the driver.

Regardless of the context and outcome of these very recent incidents, each provides a very “close-to-home” reminder that the police officers you see every day in and around Woodbury put their lives on the line every time they clock in on the job.

Thankfully, these types of incidents are not commonplace in the careers of patrol officers, Woodbury Public Safety director Lee Vague said Monday. But they do serve as a reminder to citizens that our police officers never know what they will encounter when they leave their home and go to their job.

It’s the nature of their work.

And for the fact they do it every day, without waver, we are thankful.

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