*Featured image contains photo by Polina Zimmerman
There are many reasons why survivors don’t report abuse and why women don’t leave abusive relationships. But when someone does gather the courage to take action on their trauma, they need all the support they can get.
That’s why this story of a police officer helping a woman with her children has garnered so much attention.
A Woman Takes the First Step
Imagine finding the courage to start the difficult task of filing a domestic violence report at the police station. Now imagine being forced to do so with three small children. That’s the situation a woman in Jacksonville, Utah, faced in 2018 when she showed up at the West Jordan Police Department.
According to CNN, the mother was ready to make a report and got a welcomed (but unexpected) surprise upon her arrival: an officer offered to watch her children while she spoke with a victim advocate and filled out the paperwork. With her children safely supervised, she was able to focus on the task at hand without worrying about what her kids were doing.
Clerks at the station witnessed the kind act and snapped some photos of Officer Robert Lofgran cradling the woman’s baby. Later, the department shared the incident on social media in a since-deleted post.
“It isn’t easy for women to seek help in escaping an abusive situation at home …” said one Facebook commenter, as per the publication. “Cheers to her for her bravery and to this officer for his compassion.”
A Department That Cares
According to department officials, helping the community is standard practice at the station. Sgt. J.C. Holt explained to the publication that filling out a domestic abuse report can take a long time, so that day, the officer’s help watching the kids was what was needed to get it done.
“We are grateful for the highlight and glad for officers like Officer Lofgran,” Holt explained. “But what you see is really standard. All our officers are this way. It’s a typical day in the office, it really is.”
He added how he’s grateful whenever his team gets the chance to humanize the profession and show that police officers care.
“It was super hard for this woman to come into the police station,” he added. “Her children were all under the age of five, and we admire her courage. If you need help, come in, involve us, and give us a chance to help you.”
Going Above and Beyond
This story resonates because parents everywhere know that it takes a village to help raise children, and a kind police officer was willing to go above his job description to help a struggling mother out during a difficult time that day.
But this story also goes to show you that sometimes you need to go beyond the job in order to connect with someone and help them on a human level.
That could mean holding a baby at a restaurant so a mother can eat or spending a few extra minutes with a lonely elderly person to chat about their day. Or, it could just mean keeping your eyes open for ways to help others and stepping up if and when you see a way to help.
After all, most of us go to work to earn a paycheck. But finding meaning while we’re on the job truly is a blessing.
