Freedom to Choose

By Bob Jacobson, MCPA Professional Development Director

“Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.” --Viktor E. Frankl, psychiatrist and concentration camp survivor

About one year ago on July 13th, 2016, I walked out of the back door of the New Brighton Public Safety Center never to return again as a Peace Officer. If I pause long enough, I can still feel the emotion, the passion, the joys and sorrows of a nearly 33 year career serving a great community and more importantly the men and women of New Brighton’s Department of Public Safety. I loved the work, I loved the people with whom I served and I enjoyed the vast majority of the public, elected officials and appointed city staff with whom I served. Did I "love em all?” Certainly not. Did I make mistakes? Hell yes. Do I have regrets about choosing this profession? Hell no.

But the decision to leave was one made from my freedom on how to respond to a situation with my dignity and moral compass intact and knowing that the timing was right. I chose a path that I have come to embrace and love. I am thankful for my life with my wife and my ever-expanding family, for the time to slow down and experience the subtleties of the world, and thanks to Andy and the MCPA, for the opportunity to help support and train our current and next generations of law enforcement leaders. Bitterness has no permanent place in my life. And, hopefully, it does not in yours.

An article in a recent Time magazine noted a 2015 study that “showed that nostalgic reminiscence can be a stabilizing force. It can strengthen our sense of personal continuity, reminding us that we possess a store of powerful memories that are deeply intertwined with our identity.” The article further stated that “Ultimately, when we focus on our own life experiences – falling back on our store of happy memories – nostalgia is a useful tool. It’s a way to harness the past internally to endure change – and create hope for the future.”

And, guess what, despite the ups and downs we all may experience not just in law enforcement but in life, we can create hope for the future. The last several weeks will likely be remembered by all of us connected to law enforcement in Minnesota. We have had a police officer acquitted of manslaughter, and we have had an outcry from members of our communities that the decision was just, and others that it was a miscarriage of justice. We have even had some questionable comments and decisions by those in power in our State that leave many of us wondering what our future holds for this profession. Perhaps many of us wish for times prior to Ferguson, Missouri or Falcon Heights, Minnesota.

We can be nostalgic and wish for simpler times, but we must focus on that hope for the future. As trained and committed members of our Peer Support team we have the freedom to make a difference. We can spend time talking with our fellow Chiefs reminiscing about the good old days but working to prepare for our future. We can help each other prepare physically, mentally and spiritually for the fulfilling yet challenging time ahead. We can work to overcome challenges and support each other in life styles and choices that will lead to long term wellness, not a career born and completed in pain.

And we can be leaders and show our agencies and our communities the way to heal, not inflame. And that includes how we treat each other.

So, please, pick up that phone, make that call to your Peer and continue to make that connection over a cup of coffee, lunch, or a side by side conversation wherever you may choose. Our work, your commitment, is too important. You have that freedom.

Learn more about MCPA's Peer Support and Outreach System and training