FBI Director: ‘I worry very much’ that young people won’t join police force

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2016/05/17/fbi-director-i-worry-very-much-that-young-people-wont-join-police-force/

(CNSNews.com) – “I worry very much — especially with a lot of controversy around law enforcement these days, and sometimes healthy skepticism becoming cynicism — that young men and women may be discouraged from pursuing this kind of service (police work),” FBI Director James Comey said last Friday.

Comey, speaking at a memorial service for FBI agents killed in the line of duty, said his own son is about to become a policeman:

“I have five children; my middle child is my son. He is about to join a police department after graduating from college. He’s doing it because he wants to help people.

“I worry very much, are young men and women making that same choice today at the rate we need them to? I don’t know. I think it’s something we all have to worry about.

“And as part of that worry, we need to make sure that we tell the world the kind of people who join this service career — the kind of people who decide, with full knowledge of the danger they face, to raise their hand, swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and then spend their life moving towards danger, towards pain, towards suffering.”

Comey said there are two reasons for honoring fallen police officers and FBI agents:

“First, we do it to thank those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the FBI and this country. And it’s important to thank them and their families. People don’t do this for the money. They do it because they want to be part of doing something with moral content. They do it at tremendous financial sacrifice; they do it at great personal risk.”

Comey said the second reason is to “model for the world the kind of people who decide to be this way.”

“For those of you who are familiar with the Christian scriptural tradition, Paul wrote a letter to the Philippians, in which he said this: ‘Whatever is noble, whatever is just…whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.’

“Each of our fallen special agents was exactly that,” Comey said. “They were noble; they were just; they were praiseworthy; they were excellent; they were admirable.

“And so today, and every day, we have to think about that, and think about them. We have to remember them. We have to honor them. We have to aspire to be worthy of their example, and to inspire other great people to try to be what they were.”

— Written by Susan Jones