Tonia,

Thank you so much for posting your letter here for me to read. My daughter turns 9 on Sunday, and she is a bit afraid of police officers because of an incident that happened to her when she was helping her father clean a local bank.  We own a cleaning company and my husband took Chelsea with him to have her help him clean the bank one night and she, out of curiosity, pushed one of their silent alarm buttons. The police rushed to the bank and banged loudly on the door demanding my daughter open it (my husband was in the cellar area of the bank and did not get up the stairs in time before this happened). She of course was terrified...silent alarms make no noise and she had no idea why the police were there. They questioned her about her name and age (my husband was there by then) and realized it was an accident and told her not to push the button again. Well, since then I have been trying to reconstruct my daughter’s faith in our police force.  I have her speak to them whenever we see one at a fair or gathering that has a booth for law enforcement, and I tell her about how much they really care about people and how they protect us and that they were just trying to be sure she and everyone’s money was safe when they went to the bank that day.  Your letter just gave me another opportunity to open this discussion with her. I read her your letter.  I told her about you and your daughters and that their daddy is a police officer and how much you love him. I think you have helped me to make another dent in the fear she has.  Your letter was very touching and true. Thank you for sharing it.