GULFPORT, Miss– The “Thin Blue Line.” It’s what officers use to refer to their law enforcement family, and a Gulfport officer spoke to News Mississippi about it after hearing the news of two officers ambushed and killed in New York.
The “thin blue line” stretches from coast to coast and state to state.
“I don’t know them. I’ve never seen them,” said Sergeant Damon J. McDaniel, “but I’ll go to bat for them.”
McDaniel said that’s the mentality of law enforcement officers, and it rings louder when word spreads of an officer killed in the line of duty.
McDaniel said when officers are lost, it’s not always from violent crime.
“We lost one locally to a single car accident.”.
McDaniel said that an officer lost anywhere in the line of duty is a loss to a family that only law enforcement agents understand.
“And each time it’s in New York or somewhere else, we look at the fact that it could happen here.”
He talked about officer safety.
“But we won’t do anything different, we just hope and pray our officers rely on their training.”
McDaniel said Gulfport police are equipped with all they need, including bulletproof vests.
“It’s tragic. We go through all the training to keep our officers safe, so everyone can go home at then end of their shift.”
McDaniel said that the hope for all law enforcement is that they remember their training, and also keep up with new readings and equipment that comes out.
“We choose this career, yes, but we’re human too. And just want to go home at the end of our shift, safely.”
