National Police Week – May 12 – May 18

We share with you a post from Suffern Police Chief Clarke Osborn. A lifelong resident of Suffern, Chief Osborn believes in the philosophy of community policing.

Good day my friends, the other day while working with Lt. John Mallon we backed up another officer on a medical call that he responded to. To me, working patrol in a marked car whenever I get the opportunity keeps me fresh and in tune with what is really going on in the street and in the community. In regards to this medical call, I walked into this residence and saw a woman in distress and the other officer taking care of her while waiting for the medics and an ambulance to arrive. I also noticed a young child on the scene and the woman in distress was his mother. As I approached the woman to see how she was doing this young child, who was in 1st grade, yells to me “ I know you, you come to my school”, and with that runs over to me, gives me a hug and proceeds to show me his homework, his class picture on the refrigerator and we start talking about baseball. These actions took his mind off of his ill mother and the moral to the story is that good, proactive police work such as stopping in schools and speaking to residents in non enforcement situations is critical in serving others so when crisis does happen we are not strangers but rather familiar faces. Officers do these types of things, unnoticed, everyday and I cannot stress their importance. Just felt the need to share this as we start National Police Week. Have a great night!

* Chief Osborn’s department is an integral part of the community from the Holiday Toy Drive to the D.A.R.E Hockey program and the annual Christmas parade. Not many police chiefs are on a first name basis with the residents they serve, but he is.

Photo is from the 2019 Suffern Street Fair