Police officer feels deployed at home

I was in the coastguard for several years. When we started having kids, my wife and I made the decision for me to “come home” and look for a different job that didn’t take me away from home so much.

I still wanted to serve, so I joined law enforcement.

It didn’t take but about six months for me to realize that I continued bumping into people— in public places— to whom I had issued tickets for motor vehicle violations. We often did a double-take in public— kinda like you do when you see someone you think you know but they’re not in the place you’d to expect to see them.

This happened over and over and over.

Maybe it was— is— just me. I could be over-thinking it, but I’m pretty sure I saw people (when I was out with my family) who I put in jail or testified against in court…

“I don’t like this,” I confessed to my wife. “When I was in the Coast Guard, I never saw the perpetrators again— ever. But now I’m serving in my own neighborhood. It’s like I’m deployed 24/7 in my own backyard.”

People could find our address in the phone book, and I was worried about retaliation.

We moved over a city, but still…

Most people’s traffic patterns don’t consist of staying inside certain municipal lines. People generally drive around entire metropolitan areas in their day-to-day activities.

With— in my mind, again, I could be over-thinking it— a potential enemy behind every turn, I got out. I found a role where I could help veterans and first responders in other capacities, still serving and giving back but not worrying if I was going to face an awkward or dangerous situation while I was out with my family.