The 6th Annual LAPD Essay Contest was open to students in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District and schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Students were asked to write what they would do that would have the greatest impact on the community if they were a Los Angeles Police Department officer for a day. Each of the ten winners and their essay are featured on the Department’s website, one each week. The following essay is one of the ten winning submissions.
If
I were a police officer for only one day there are two things that I
could do that would have a big impact. Primarily, I could go to talk
to adolescents about the importance of following the law. The second
thing I could do would be to go around and recruit. These would be
very beneficial things for the safety of our community.
One thing I could do would be to talk to young teens about the importance of following the law. During the years of adolescence, teens are pressured into joining gangs and committing a safer place before gangs and bad influences teach them differently. I could convince them not to fall into such horrible activities by teaching them about the consequences early. By talking to them and speaking about the consequences, I could save lives. Talking to adolescents will help the community, and might even influence the world.
A second thing I could do would be to recruit while patrolling the community. All police officers have patrolled their community at least once. How great would it be if while they were doing that they could recruit more people to keep the city safer. They could stop at times and share information with citizens to inform them of the value of police officers for them and for their community. By recruiting more people, I could guarantee that less people will break the law and my community will be a safer place.
Being a police officer is a job that includes enormous responsibility, but also includes power in the community. This is why if I were a police officer for a day I would choose to use that power to have a large impact on our community, by ensuring that teens are informed about the law and to ensure that police officers always exist to keep our community as safe as it could be, and to make it even safer for the future.
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