I'm no criminal nor am I involved in any form of law enforcement, but from the interactions I've had with the Middletown Police Department, I can say we're lucky to have a department that genuinely cares for its community. The boys in blue back home never come off as the bad guys or as if they're trying to take advantage of you. From my experience, they've been nothing but helpful.

My earliest memory of Middletown cops was participating in the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in 5th grade. During the program, an officer came into class and taught us about the dangers of drug abuse. The most respectable part about it was he did not sugarcoat the consequences even though he was dealing with 10 and 11 year-olds. We even got to visit the police station where he locked us up in jail for a while which was quite a bit of fun.

The reason this is relevant is because not every town is lucky enough to have this level of police involvement in the community. Middletown is lucky to have a department that works with the population instead of against it.

In January of 2015, I was the proud owner of a 2002 Ford Taurus with no working heat, defrosters, and a faulty radiator. Unfortunately, I had to say goodbye to her when I slipped on ice down in Port Monmouth and crashed into a telephone pole. Within five minutes, an officer named Officer Menendez arrived and helped me out. He made sure my friend and I were alright and consoled me on the loss of my car. He was a cool guy and I'm happy we have cops that arrive so quickly.

My most recent encounter with Middletown cops was actually pretty funny. I was driving past Mater Dei when my friend and I saw a car stuck on a fallen pole on the side of the road. We stopped to see if we could help, but after taking a closer look we decided to wait for police to arrive so we don't damage the bottom of the car.

When the police arrived we talked for a little bit until they decided to push the woman's car off the pole with the police SUV. The woman was still in the car when they were getting ready to push.

"Wait," I said to the cop. "Shouldn't she get out first?"

The cop paused and laughed. "Yeah probably."

She stayed in the car anyway and the cops successfully pushed the car off the pole. She also immediately drove away as soon as she could.

The point of this story is that I just want to express that I'm grateful that I come from a town where I can laugh with and talk to the police. They take their jobs seriously as they should but they still act as part of the community as much as the average person. If you're from a town that's not lucky enough to have a department like this, just keep in mind that they're still people. More specifically, they're people that put themselves at risk for us.