I believe one of the most misunderstood and underappreciated professions is law enforcement, law enforcement professionals often don't get the credit and respect they deserve. That's not to say that all are deserving, occasionally we hear about a cop that turns bad. However for the most part members of the profession are highly trained dedicated men and women that we can be proud of, where would we be without them? I've known some people in law enforcement that never should have been police officers and others who should not have done anything else, having once been an Auxiliary Police Officer I feel I've seen the bad and the good but fortunately more good. I read last winter about a police officer in New York City who used his own money to purchase shoes for a homeless man he had just encountered, on the other side of the coin I read not long ago about a Dallas officer who was arrested for assaulting his girlfriend. Fortunately there are a lot more officers of the first type that do good than we hear about, if a cop goes bad it's all over the news much more so than the often unreported good deeds many do. I don't understand why, but bad news seems to get reported more and travels much faster than good news. I wish it was the other way around.
In law enforcement there are a lot of calls that are pretty much routine, many of those seem to blend together and you can't recall a lot of them. However some you will never forget, one I remember is many years ago I was in South Dallas riding with a Dallas officer friend of mine. It was around midnight one very busy night and we got a call about a cab driver that had just been robbed, in just a few minutes the police helicopter came overhead and lit up the area for about a city block just like it was daylight. Seeing the officers in the helicopter in the air coordinating their work with the officers on the ground while searching for the robber was really something to see; those guys earn their money all the time but especially on nights like that.
An area officer who I feel deserves special recognition is B. F. Wade, who is mainly known for his thirty six and a half years with the Texas Department of Public Safety. He also has worked for the Sherman Police Department, Grayson College Police Department, and the Grayson County Sheriff's Office. He worked over six and a half decades in law enforcement, one of very few officers in our country to have ever served that long.
Proper law enforcement involves not only knowing just when to enforce the law to the letter but also when to show common sense and compassion to just protect and serve, B.F. is a master at both. B.F. and his wife Marie have been married over 72 years, another outstanding record.