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Ridge: Police work ‘perilous’

Mirror photo by Gary M. Baranec Former Pa. Gov. Tom Ridge speaks to Father Malachi Van Tassell, TOR, president of Saint Francis University, on Friday. Ridge was the keynote speaker for the college’s Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.

Speaking at Saint Francis University’s second annual Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, former Gov. Tom Ridge said police work is hard work, whether it’s local, state or federal, and law enforcement has to work together more to confront the dangers of the modern world.

Police also deserve appreciation and support because while mistakes can be litigated and debated for months and years after the fact, the men and women on the job have a nanosecond to make life and death decisions while staying within the bounds of the Consti­tution, Ridge said.

Ridge served as the nation’s first secretary of Homeland Security.

“Only then can you be successful in combating the evil out there,” Ridge told a room filled with state and local police, students and staff of Saint Francis and other invited guests during a luncheon that punctuated a day in which officers interacted with students through exhibitions and displays.

Ridge, who has worked with federal law enforcement agencies, the Pennsyl­vania state police and the 25,000 to 30,000 local police officers in Pennsyl­vania, said that most people don’t have an idea of what’s involved.

“It’s more perilous than most people can imagine,” Ridge said of answering calls as a police officer, whether dealing with strangers in dark vehicles during traffic stops in isolated areas to responding to a heated domestic dispute.

Law Enforcement Apprec­i­ation Day was started in 2015 by Jordan Troxell, a junior nursing student and son of a retired state police trooper.

Troxell, 21, said the idea was born shortly after national incidents in Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, Md. He believed the university should have a way to get students interacting with officers and show that officers are real people and that they should be shown appreciation every day for what they do for their communities.

The purpose of the event was to give students an opportunity to interact firsthand with law enforcement and to learn in case they had some misinformation or were misguided one way or another, Troxell, a Curwensville native, said.

“It was great to see a lot of students on campus — entire classes — come out to see the police officers,” Troxell said.

Ridge spoke for about 15 minutes, capping the daylong event with praise for police and his desire to see more cooperation between agencies from the federal level down through the state and local communities. While law enforcement does work together now across agencies and jurisdictions, Ridge said there is room for improvement. The federal government would have more than 700,000 officers helping them do their jobs if there were more communication, he said.

“It needs to be stronger,” Ridge said of cooperation. “It’s not as strong as I’d like it to be.”

Ridge ended by saying that supporting officers is just part of it and it’s important to remember the families — the spouses and kids who say goodbye to the officers each day, not really knowing if they will come home.

“Honor the officers, and also honor their spouses and their kids,” Ridge said.

Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.

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