Community Policing With Zero Casualties

Recently in Lancaster Township in Pennsylvania, a five year old girl was abducted from her yard which prompted a community search. Many individuals within the community alongside law enforcement searched the area fervently with hopes of finding the child. Included in the search party were two teenagers, Temar Boggs and Chris Garcia who chose to use their bikes in their effort to find the 5 year old, Jocelyn Rojas. Their efforts were ultimately successful as they spotted the abductor with the child inside his car. The two teenaged boys immediately chased the car and continued chasing the car for fifteen minutes until the abductor finally gave up and released the little girl. The boys in turn, returned the terrified child to her family.

I can't imagine a better ending to a horrifying start. Thanks to the efforts of these two boys, a kidnapping was intercepted and there is now one less missing child out there. Due to the actions of these boys, the kidnappers agenda was thwarted and the man was not able to destroy the life of yet another innocent child. I am so happy for the family of this little girl and grateful to these young boys.

I also wanted to make the point that when community assistance and policing is done right, the results can only be positive for everyone involved. Unfortunately the man was not caught and the police officer's are still searching for this child kidnapper whom I presume is either a pedophile or sex trafficker. However, it is more important that the young girl was found and no lives were lost in the process.

I believe that if we are going to take matters in our own hands when we believe a crime is in progress, as in this case, let us not chase after suspects with loaded guns and with the mentality of using the gun when things start going awry. In this case, the police were on the scene trained for any volatile situation and these two boys chased the car after identifying the kidnapped child inside the car. The boys were able to follow the man safely until the man decided to release the child, after which, instead of continuing the chase and accosting the suspect, they opted to return the child to her family and divulged the critical information they observed from their chase  to the authorities to help further the investigation of the suspect.

The situation could have also gone terribly wrong if the suspect had decided to react to being chased in an aggressive manner. He could have decided to start driving recklessly, or to threaten the life of the child inside the car or even had a gun and decided to use the gun on the teenagers, the child and or himself. In all those cases, the law enforcement was there and could immediately intervene.

I am satisfied with the way this scenario unfolded as we have seen how community policing have gone terribly wrong in the case of Trayvon Martin, who lost his life after being confronted by someone who believed he was "protecting" the community from the teenager. My hope is that we try to learn from both these cases to make "community policing" more effective and successful for all parties involved, even the suspects. This way, we can prevent future unnecessary deaths.