It was the week from hell. The shock. The outrage. The tragedy. The grief. It’s what happens when the horrific occurs. It’s what happens when two of your police officers are murdered. Executed, actually.
Life can never be the same for the bereaved families of slain officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab. And the intensity of a round-the-clock manhunt and the emotion-depleting loss of one of their own will long linger with members of the Tampa Police Department.
As for the community at large, it is reminded of a sobering reality known all too intimately by TPD officers and their extended families. There are no “routine” traffic stops. There is no such thing as “another day at the office.”
And who among us hasn’t mulled over this hypothetical? At that hour? In that part of town? For that violation? Who would blame the police for saying, in effect: “The hell with it.” For thinking: “A traffic stop at 2 a.m. in East Tampa. Are you kidding me?”
But they don’t say that, because it’s not their job to rationalize the risk of traffic stops. Their job as society’s front-line defenders doesn’t permit cherry picking at odd hours when nothing good happens. They check it out because it’s their job and because you never know.
But now we do.
We also know that crisis leadership is not lacking around here. Mayor Pam Iorio and Police Chief Jane Castor answered the call. One that required a range of traits from competence and composure to sympathy and empathy.
Their job was keeping us informed, reassured and safe. They were proactive professionals and emotional surrogates. They were sleep-challenged and occasionally misty-eyed. They were what Officers Curtis and Kocab deserved and what the Tampa community needed.
Well done and thank you.