Badges and Bloodshed

On Monday, a seasoned high ranking law enforcement officer with the New York City Police department, stabbed his wife , then took his service revolver from his holster, shot her and then himself, all before the couple's 18-year old daughter.

The daughter who was in the home at the time of the shooting, will recount and live this tragedy over and over, for the rest of her life. This is a club, no longer a private matter, whose membership is growing among law enforcement families. And it is a crime, that in my opinion can be prevented in some situations when a department learns the officer is divorcing or ending a relationship.

Police departments must begin creating and implementing basic services for their officers. These services must also include the safety of spouses in police-perpetrated domestic violence.

I have said this before, you train a police officer to protect the streets. They are issued a gun and a badge. The spouses are ignorned, left all alone with trained officers ,when an arugement or a relationship is ending. A spouse is helpless to seek any type of assistance or direction to protect she and the children. A spouse is unable to contact anyone in the department where the officer is stationed and ask for assistance. A spouse cannot file charges against her officer husband after an explosive episode, as she risks losing her life.

As an author, safety strategist and lecturer in the area of family violence within an officers family, I know first-hand, the life threatening issues associated within an officers home when violence erupts.

The time has come to put an end to the bloodshed, one and for all.