Police Officers and Domestic Violence
Suffering in Silence
I read something in the Dallas Morning News today that had me thinking. A Corporal Mark Force (interesting last name, no?) was arrested on Wednesday while he was off duty. His possible crime? Domestic abuse. The details are not publicly available, but jail records indicate the 7-year veteran of the Fort Worth Police Department was choking his partner.
The officer was released later that same evening, and the department has put out a boilerplate response: “The Fort Worth Police Department holds its officers to a high standard both on and off-duty, and does not tolerate criminal misconduct or unethical behavior.” The statement further indicated that a thorough investigation would be conducted.
I hope it is.
There is a troubling issue that should concern all Americans. Data suggests that police officers are 15 times as likely as the general populace to abuse their family members. In fact, a woman working with victims hiding in shelters stated that the bulk of those she helped had either been partners to those in biker gangs or police officers. When a profession can be compared to a biker gang, you know that profession has issues.
Alex Roslin, who wrote the book Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Domestic Violence, is an award-inning Canadian…
