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Law enforcement officers take a lot of heat nationally, especially over the past few months.

The mantra of law enforcement is to protect and serve, but unfortunately, we often hear more about the bad things law enforcement does than the good things that happen every day. 

Not the case in West Point, where this week we reported on two instances where WPPD went above and beyond the call of duty.

On Friday afternoon, the Fletcher family from Delran, New Jersey were on their way to Tuskegee University where their daughter was scheduled to move in.

They were driving through West Point on Interstate 85 when the rear tire blew out of the rental vehicle.

The car, which they had rented through Enterprise Car Rental, did not have a spare tire and needed a tow.

The Fletchers called Enterprise and were told they would send a tow truck, but the truck could not take the family with the car, and they would need to find their own way off the interstate. AAA told them the same story.

Having exhausted all other options, the Fletchers called 911. WPPD officers Brice O’steen and Caine Longshore arrived on scene and put their heads together to get the family back on the road.

“They just needed a little kindness and compassion. I told officer O’steen, if that were my mom or my dad, I would want them to be treated with the same respect.

I treated them as I would my mom or dad.

I figured that I would do the best that we could to get them back on the road, and that’s what we did,” Longshore said.

Then on Tuesday, members of the West Point Police Department and the West Point Active Life Center teamed up to take coffee and donuts to senior citizens in West Point.

“With COVID, a lot of our senior citizens can’t get out,” Police Chief Donald Britt said. “We just wanted to get out and serve them and see them.

Today, we’re going to about five houses.

Hopefully, it’ll grow and we can do it at least once a month. Instead of ‘Coffee with a Cop,’ we had Coffee brought by a Cop.”

We commend these officers’ actions and the positive impact they have on their community. We know there are many more of these stories out there to tell, but these are just a couple that came across our desks this week. Thank you to the West Point Police Department for all of your work this week.