A little bit of follow-up

[Guest guest]

Thanks to all for the kind thoughts and prayers,

It's times like these I feel lucky I work for a small department. I had

several informal talks with the responding officers on that call today and

they filled me on the call from their perspective. We all came to the

conclusion on our own that we were the end of a long tortured path for this

child (this had not been his first attempt) and he is in a better place now

than where he was.

I must jump on my soapbox for a moment. The first responding officer

arrived to three family members wanting to give their side of the story. It

took almost ten minutes of excuses for their behavior before the search for

the boy began. I do not blame the officer since he was responding to an

" out of control child " call. My question really comes down to has our

society become so self-centered that " covering your own rear-end " has become

more important than looking for a kid who has run off? After the incident,

one of the officers was approached by a family member requesting that this

not get into our local paper because of the effect on their reputation. All

he could do was walk away with saying anything.

Also, I do need to correct a portion of last nights post. I mentioned a

deputy did not know CPR. WRONG!!! This was one of those calls where as

soon as the child was found the phone and radio went nuts wondering why the

ambulance wasn't there ten minutes before the first page, etc., etc. Both

responding officers admirally went through the motions of CPR despite

obvious signs that it was too late.

We did get the reminder that we do need some type of CISD person. We do

have access via some regional services but they are often 60-90 miles away

and are slow to respond. Might have to use this incident as a reminder to

administration that one day something worse may come along where our

informal chats just aren't going to be enough.

Thanks to all again and have a quiet night,

Tom

Aitkin Co SO, Minnesota

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