Policing with Compassion
Care and Compassion.
Salt & Light Partners has been supporting the Rochester Police Department since May of 2021. In that time, the chaplains have been on more than 50 ride-alongs in squad cars with officers, spent time with staff in their workspace, celebrated milestones with joy, and shared grief in loss. Through nearly every interaction, we've been humbled by these dedicated women and men as we witness acts of care and compassion. There are dozens of stories I could tell about their selfless service. This one is about an amazing officer.
I first met Master Patrol Officer Tim Hagen on June 10th, 2021 around midnight when I was on a ride-along with another officer. Officer Hagen was first on the scene after several 911 calls brought us to a neighborhood where callers reported a woman going from home to home, knocking on doors, looking for some shelter. She was naked, presumably under the influence of chemicals, disoriented, and scared. Officer Hagen gave her his raincoat providing a modicum of dignity and gently asked her about her situation. She was reluctant to say much, just that she wanted to go home, but didn't know where home was. I watched in astonishment as these two officers chatted with her for nearly an hour, offering onsite medical assistance (declined), a ride to her home (she couldn't remember where she lived), and transportation to the hospital (she considered it). Perhaps because Officer Hagen was first on scene, because he provided her the only clothing she had, or because his demeanor was particularly respectful and his words kind, she eventually accepted a ride to St. Mary's Hospital in his squad.
I followed them to the emergency department (ED) in the squad I was riding in and Officer Hagen repeated the same gentle and encouraging method he'd used a few minutes earlier to convince her to be seen by the medical staff at the hospital. At one point she looked at the entrance to an examination room in the ED and paused. I could see she was scared. Everyone there was patient and they gave her space and time to make the decision to walk through the door.
Officer Hagen leaned over to me and said, "How many times do you think she has looked at a door and said to herself, 'I wonder what's behind there.'" We all suspected that she had been sex trafficked and hoped that this was the first step toward getting the help she needed. She entered the room with hesitation. We thanked the staff in the ED, and went back to our squads to take the next call of the evening humbled by the experience.
I learned that night that policing has more opportunities for human compassion than in almost anything I've ever done. I witnessed both officers show their deep compassion, amazed by their skills in listening, caring, discernment, patience, kindness, and discretion. Of course, this could have been a one-off experience. Maybe I caught these officers on a good night or perhaps my presence influenced their behavior. Either or both could be true. I sought to prove or disprove the former argument by scheduling a ride-along with Officer Hagen on November 3rd.
In between calls, Officer Hagen and I got to know each other a little bit. I discovered he is a fisherman, loves his family without bounds, and that he cares deeply about the people in his community. I was able to see how caring he was on this cold winter night when we received two calls in a row for homeless men in Rochester. In each case, Officer Hagen displayed tremendous care and compassion with these two men, whom he knew well and by name through previous interactions.
In one case, he drove the homeless man to a family member's house, who took him in with words of thanks and apologies. The other situation was a little more complicated as the homeless man was combative. He was not allowed into detox because of a violent incident he caused just days earlier. We took him to the warming shelter and he was rejected within minutes for a poor choice of words to the staff and was physically bumping into other guests because he was having trouble standing. At one point, officer Hagen was talking to him from about 3 feet away. The man took a swing-and-a-miss at Officer Hagen who never flinched. Instead, we led the man out of the warming shelter and away from others in order to convince him to go to the hospital.
I later asked Officer Hagen why he didn't move when the man took a swing at him. He replied that "it would have been better if he had hit me because then I could take him to jail where he would have a warm and safe place to sleep with no access to alcohol and he could start to get better." It does happen (see my interview with Kristin Bussman at https://youtu.be/HcylSKHMwOw). As it turned out, we took the homeless man to the ED where we hoped he would get the best help he could at the time.
Despite heroic efforts by many in our community, there is still no holistic answer to homelessness in Rochester as the problem is multifaceted with subtleties of human nature, mental health, and addictions. Officer Hagen did the best he could with the time he had and I am grateful for his service, care for others, and commitment to the safety of our community. #saltandlightpartners