December 1, 2016, will be a morning that I’ll never forget.
As President of Tucson Police Officers Association, my days are filled with challenges: shrinking budgets, understaffed patrol squads and police cars that just won’t turn on. It’s easy to get bogged down with so much to do every day.
The reality, however, is that my role with our organization encompasses much more than that. When a Tucson Police Officer is hurt or killed, the TPOA springs into action and supports the officer and their family however and whenever possible. Monetary donations, hospital arrangements, house and babysitting: We do it all.
Over the last fifteen years, I’ve been lucky to be tasked with making these arrangements only a handful of times. But that changed last December. When I was told we had two officers shot and wounded on Tucson’s south side, I knew we had to go to work. There would be hospital arrangements, supporting family members, coordinating with support organizations such as the 100 club, dealing with media requests and more.
I also knew that on top of the immediacy of dealing with two wounded officers, that something had to change. Not just within our police department but within our community as well.
In short order, I learned that Jorge Tequida, one of the two officers wounded in December, had likely survived his injuries because he was wearing a bulletproof vest. I remember thinking two things: thank goodness Jorge was wearing his vest, and how lucky he was that his vest was not expired and ineffective.
Sometimes, looking back over my 15-year career, I’m amazed to see how things have changed. I can remember a time when we had to remind officers, and sometimes beg them, to wear their bulletproof vests. It was a different time back then, and our personal safety wasn’t the daily consideration and stress that unfortunately it is today.
These days, it doesn’t take much to convince our officers to don their bulletproof vests at the start of every shift. But that might not be enough. That’s because more than one out of every three vests worn by our officers is expired. That means we’re simply not sure how they’ll perform under the stress of actual gunfire.
This is why I ask Tucsonans to vote yes on Proposition 101, the city sales tax initiative that will fund a variety of public safety needs, including new bulletproof vests for the men and women of our department who work to keep our community safe.
I could tell you that the new tax expires in five years. I could tell you that there is tons of oversight to make sure the money is spent properly. I could even tell you Tucson’s sales tax is lower that most of the cities and towns around us.
But what I really want you to consider is just how lucky we are that Officer Jorge Tequida was wearing a bulletproof vest that was strong enough to save his life. I don’t want to be lucky next time. I want to be prepared. I want our officers to have the very best chance possible to survive a deadly encounter.
The choice to make that happen was mailed to you in the form of a ballot. It might even be sitting on your kitchen counter. Please, grab you ballot, vote yes on Proposition 101, and give our officers the fighting chance they deserve.
