The Way of the Blue Warrior

As police officers, we talk a lot about being warriors.  We’ve all heard members of the military talk about being warriors, but even other people describe themselves as “road warriors” or “weekend warriors”.  Everyone from nurses to stock brokers describe themselves as “warriors” and you can even find a warrior diet, and a website where they list warrior names for baby’s.

There are warrior books, warrior companies, warrior games, warrior trucks and even warrior cats.  I guess if you are a warrior, you know what you are.

Maybe the word is a little over used, or maybe we need to define ourselves as warriors, in the context of law enforcement.

As law enforcement officers, we certainly can describe ourselves as warriors because at times we may have to enter into a fight to the death, and many times our lives are threatened during the normal course of a day, but is that the whole picture?

I don’t think so.  I think we define ourselves as warriors because of what the word symbolizes about our approach to life, work and the world around us.  Does it mean that we are always at war?  No, it means that we are always prepared to deal with violence if it comes to us, or the communities we protect.  More importantly… Continue reading