MANSFIELD — Mansfield Police Department was praised just two hours after five police officers lost their lives and seven more were wounded at a Dallas demonstration last week.
“I just wanted to thank all of the officers, detectives, and staff at the Mansfield Police Department for all that you do. With so much negativity going on across our country, I can only imagine the added tension that you must face,” wrote Rachel Lyon in an email.
Lyon, a teller for First Merit Bank on Park Avenue, said she has witnessed MPD’s sincerity and concern for the city’s citizens firsthand.
On Dec. 8, Lyon experienced a robbery. The suspect handed her a note and demanded money. According to a Richland Source article published that day, the suspect threatened her with a gun.
She added that she senses incredible compassion, diligence and fairness when dealing with Mansfield Police Department. And that these characteristics are the ones she tries to teach her 3-year-old daughter about law enforcement.
“I think it’s this joke with parents, where they say to their children, ‘You better be good or the police will get you.’ I think it’s important to not instill that fear, especially with kids when they’re young,” Lyon said.
“They (police) aren’t out to get anybody. They just want to keep people safe,” she added.
Police chief Ken Coontz responded with gratitude to Lyon’s kind words.
“Although I’m certain none of these officers would expect to be thanked, sometimes it is nice to know that you are appreciated by the people you have sworn to protect,” Coontz wrote back in response.
He then admonished Lyon to continue to pray for the officers and deputies of Richland County and surrounding counties, adding they “have a sincere passion to help others, and would lay down their lives in order to protect any other person in harm’s way.”
Assistant Chief of Police Keith Porch said Lyon was not the only one to express her thanks to Mansfield police. He said he received numerous calls the next day from community members who wanted to express support for the department.
“Those are the types of things we work for. We want to make lives better,” he said. He said one woman even showed up to the police department to show her support.
Mayor Tim Theaker said the city’s flag will fly at half-mast for a few days to honor the officers from Dallas. He added that he is proud of the law enforcement in Mansfield.
“I’m proud of our police department and what they do because they are very responsive to our citizens. It’s a sad situation that anything like this would have happened,” he said.
Theaker also added that some law enforcement agencies have “weeds” that need weeded out — law enforcement officers who act wrongly.
“But we got ours out with Garn,” he said. Former MPD police officer Michael Garn was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison in April for sexual battery, menacing by stalking, tampering with evidence, 10 counts of dereliction of duty and 12 counts of misuse of a law enforcement computer.
Police death statistics
Police deaths are not common at MPD. The department has lost a total of four police officers since 1893 — three of the four died from gunshot wounds.
According to National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 20,662 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty from 1791 to 2015.
In 2015, 124 officers died — a four percent increase from 2014’s 119. And 57 officers have died so far in 2016, just one short of 2015’s 58 reported during the same period of time.
Of those 57 police officers who have died since January 2016, 26 were due to gunshot wounds — a 44 percent increase from 2015.
Of the 124 officers who died in 2015, 52 deaths were traffic-related — 35 of those died in crashes, 11 were struck and killed outside their vehicle and six were killed in motorcycle crashes. Traffic-related fatalities increased six percent from 2014 when 49 officers were killed.
Firearm deaths decreased 14 percent in 2015, amounting in 42 deaths compared to 2014’s 49 deaths.
Thirty officers died from other causes in 2015 compared to 21 in 2014. Heart attacks rose from 18 deaths in 2014 to 24 in 2015.
Deaths from felonious incidents decreased 16 percent in 2015, resulting in 52 compared to 61 in 2014. Non-felonious deaths, however, increased 20 percent, with 73 deaths compared to 58 in 2014.
