It's easy to poke fun at cops.

You know. The jokes about the doughnut shops. The old saw about there never being a cop around when you need one.

People get mad when they get pulled over for speeding. Of course it's always the cops' fault.

These things are especially prevalent in a small town that is largely devoid of serious crime.

Maybe it's because cops are so visible. Always in the public eye.

On any given morning, there are literally thousands of people in this town eating doughnuts at their desks or on their production line. But let one cop car be spotted at the doughnut shop. ...

Cops get accused of being gung ho and trigger happy. They get criticized for overreacting to minor incidents. Simultaneously they get accused of not being there when you need them, not being tough enough with criminals or not being able to solve crimes expeditiously.

Lots of them have lousy hours and split shifts and they really don't make tons of money doing what they do.

That they really do put their lives on the line in their job seems trite in a town like this, but you know, they really do from time to time.

Like on Thursday.

I'm sitting at my desk in the newsroom and I hear on the scanner that there is an armed robbery in progress at Horizon Pharmacy (formerly Brennan's Drug Store) right across the street.

So I grabbed a camera and headed over there.

I arrived at about the same time as the officers did. They all had their guns drawn and things looked really intense.

There was a robbery at this same pharmacy on Memorial Day and I remember hearing on the scanner on the way out of the office that they though it was the same suspect.

As I was heading over there I remembered that in the first robbery, the woman wore a garbage bag, held up "something" underneath and told the employees that she had a gun. There was speculation after that first robbery that she really didn't have a gun at all.

So I was thinking to myself that this was probably the same woman and she probably didn't really have a gun and that probably there weren't going to be any bullets flying around inside Horizon Pharmacy.

Probably.

And I am quite confident that the first officers on the scene were thinking the same thing.

But put yourself in the shoes of WPD officers Joe Hawn, Paul Schmitt and Steve Brown as they entered that drug store for a minute.

You've got a loaded gun in your hand. You're a few steps and a few seconds away from possibly having to use it to defend yourself from an armed robbery suspect.

You're also faced with the possibility of having to take a human life or lose yours.

At the same time, you have to be prepared to exercise restraint. If you shoot when you're not supposed to, your life is ruined. You will likely lose your job. You will spend countless hours in a courtroom trying to defend your actions in the inevitable civil suit that will be filed against you.

What do you do?

You do what they did. You go in and do the people's business. You do what it says on the side of your squad car. You serve and protect.

After the cops were inside for a while and there wasn't any gunfire, I entered the side door.

Please allow me at this point to express my gratitude to the other officers who by now also were inside the drug store and didn't throw me out on my ear.

While I certainly did my level best to stay out of the way, I couldn't help but feel I really shouldn't have been in there right then.

I saw that the officers had the suspect on the floor and were handcuffing her. I snapped a quick photo.

Even though I knew that the situation was probably well in hand before I walked in, I still felt a little anxiety.

I can't imagine how the officers must have felt as they walked in.

As it turned out, the woman in the garbage bag was far more confused than dangerous. She didn't have a gun. Her weapon was an index finger poking against the inside of the garbage bag, which, by the way, was not completely opaque.

You could see through it.

It was pretty obvious that this woman was not thinking clearly.

The officers handled the situation quite well.

They used restraint. As they escorted her out of the store they seemed almost compassionate.

Not long ago police were faced with a situation where a man who was extremely intoxicated pointed a rifle at them.

They could have easily shot him to death. But they didn't. They exercised restraint - again.

As it turned out, the rifle wasn't loaded.

But just like in the case of the armed robbery suspect, there was no way the cops could have known that going in.

In the past couple of months our local cops have done a pretty good job of taking care of business.

So the next time you're about to deride a cop for eating too many doughnuts, remember this:

While most of the time a cop's job might seem a bit mundane to you, once in a while it's excessively stressful and extremely difficult. [[In-content Ad]]