Submitted by Chief Mike Zaro, Lakewood Police.
One of my goals after becoming Chief here in Lakewood was to highlight the good work our officers do for the Lakewood community. Good police work quite often goes unnoticed and doesn’t always involve solving crimes or making arrests but is still worth sharing. One such example occurred here in Lakewood over the summer and demonstrates perfectly the best our profession and community have to offer.
As with most police stories, this one doesn’t start out “on a dark and stormy night”. It was actually a quiet Sunday morning in the hottest June on record. The roads were mostly empty save a handful of cars. One of those cars was a 20 year old SUV being driven by an elderly couple we will call Jim and Sue. They would end up being the focus of extensive efforts by multiple organizations over the ensuing months to give them help they didn’t necessarily know they needed.
Jim was driving with Sue in the passenger seat. The car was riddled with damage and paint transfer from what would turn out to be a series of collisions that also left the driver’s door unable to close. The back cargo area was filled to the top with toilet paper, clothes, and garbage. Literally the only room inside were the seats for Jim and Sue. Driving well under the speed limit on one of our main arterials, the car drifted slowly from lane to lane. This was the reason for the initial traffic stop. After the emergency lights went on Jim continued slowly down the road, briefly slowing at times but never really stopping. This went on for the next mile until he finally rolled to a stop in front of the police station.
It was clear as officers approached the car that Jim was confused about what was happening but agreed to shut the car off. The conversations with Jim and Sue revealed they were living in the car and had been for some time. They were all the other had with no family in the area and no place to go. Here the officers were faced with a dilemma. Sue did not have a license and clearly Jim should not be driving, but their car was their home and their only possession. They literally had no place to go and were in need of support. Here’s where Sgt. John Fraser comes in. A military veteran, experienced officer, and all around good person, Sgt. Fraser went to work finding a better situation for Jim and Sue.
The first step was to get the car out of the road. Maybe Jim’s last time behind the wheel involved pulling the car from the road into the parking lot of the neighboring industrial park. This was no easy task given Jim’s poor eyesight and confusion. Once parked, Jim and Sue wanted to just stay in their car for the day. Knowing the temperature was going to be into the 100s, and knowing they would likely try to drive off, Sgt. Fraser convinced them to let him take them to the cooling center set up at Lakewood City Hall.
Sgt. Fraser’s efforts to help Jim and Sue did not end with the ride to the cooling center. After dropping them off, he enlisted the help of our in-house mental health professional, Carolyn Cyr, and a homeless Outreach Manager from Greater Lakes Mental Health, Trisha Munson. Their goal was to try and find more permanent appropriate housing for the couple. As with most efforts involving the homeless and mentally ill, this did not happen quickly. When, by the end of the day, no progress had been made, Sgt. Fraser paid for a motel room for Jim and Sue and made sure they had a ride there. That same scene played out the next day with Sgt. Fraser picking them up from the motel and taking them to the cooling center and back again. In between, efforts were ongoing to find housing. We also saw one of our newer officers, Kasey Bentz, step in to check in on Jim and Sue when Sgt. Fraser wasn’t available.
After the second night at the motel, Sgt. Fraser arrived to once again drive Jim and Sue to the cooling center. This time, though, he found Jim in even worse condition than the days before. He was struggling to breath and had a very low heart rate. Now it was time for West Pierce Fire and Rescue to get involved. They arrived and shared Sgt. Fraser’s concerns and took Jim to the hospital. While this was a turn for the worse, medically, it at least gave Jim and Sue a more comfortable place to be where they could both receive the treatment they needed.
Over the next couple of months, Trisha worked to find housing and located Sue’s daughter in Colorado. She was happy to hear Jim and Sue were being taken care of and readily agreed to bring them to Colorado to be near her. The efforts then began to get Sue’s daughter power of attorney and locate a care facility in Colorado that would take them. I’m happy to report all that hard work paid off and as of this week Jim and Sue are in a facility in Colorado, near loved ones, and getting the support and treatment they need.
Here we had an elderly couple who was homeless, malnourished, and endangering themselves and others out on the road. Thanks to the tremendous team effort and caring attitudes by Sgt. Fraser, Officer Bentz, Carolyn Cyr, Trisha Munson, West Pierce Fire and Rescue, the people working the cooling center, and the hospital staff where Jim and Sue spent several weeks, I can say with confidence that they are in a better, healthier place.
This is just one story, of many stories, that would typically go unnoticed but really highlights the best our department and community have to offer. Helping Jim and Sue didn’t come easy, but the team involved were relentless in their efforts and in the end it paid off. Not because it was their job, but because they cared enough to go the extra mile.
Chief, Mike,
this is a great story. I could not have done better. Please help us always be mindful of the legendary works our neighbors, our men and women, our thin blue line, do for us behind the scenes.
I stand a little taller, a little more prouder to be a Lakewood citizen today.
Please keep us enraptured with the actions of our front line. Thank you.
Thank you for sharing such a lovely story! We need more like this.
Thanks for sharing, Mike.
Your sharing this story of committed kindness is inspiring and reminds us we should listen more. I look forward to your next story.
With the world in such continual chaos, it helps to be reminded that there are many, many wonderful people out there doing whatever they can to make this a better place to live. Why is it we only hear about the other kind on nightly news? They are the exceptions, yet they make the headlines. So wrong.
Thank you for sharing such a heartwarming story. Yes…we definitely need more of these!
And thank you to all of the wonderful, hard-working police officers who risk their lives every time they go to work, just trying to keep all of us safe. God bless you all!
Chief Zaro,
Our general media only likes to publish bad cop stories. If the media does not have a bad cop story to write about, they then often make stuff up about good cops to make them look like bad cops. It is easy for the media to fool the public by leaving out important facts.
Thank you for writing and publishing a good cop story.
Our local press and TV could pick up on your story and feature the incident as a good cop story. Most likely that will not happen because bad cop stories, not good cop stories, sell newspapers and the TV news.
I had the pleasure of working with Sergent John Fraser during my time as a Pierce County Deputy Sheriff while serving the City of Lakewood. I too know Sergeant Fraser to be a good man. Your story about John’s good cop actions are not surprising to me.
A big thanks to Sergeant John Fraser and the impressive list of individuals and entities John recruited to accomplish his volunteer mission to help the couple in need.
Joseph Boyle – Former Resident City of Lakewood – 51 years
Thank you for taking the time from your busy schedule to share this news. It truly is a great reminder of the hard work and deep concern that the majority of police officers put forth for our community.
I agree with others that this is information worth sharing often with our community.
Blessings to our police force!
Thank you for the story and all the the police force does. This is such a demanding job. So much going on with guns, everything else. Again, thank you all for what you do. Stay safe.
Community policing and service done well. I know there are many, many more success stories like this that go unnoticed. Keep up the good work!
Mike, We are very much in need of great stories like this one. Thank you and all the wonderful people who make up Lakewood Police Department.
I, too, appreciate all that our police officers, mental health workers and others do to not only keep our community safe, but also to go that extra mile to truly be community helpers. Too bad the local news agencies don’t focus on stories like this. I think so many in the community would appreciate and be thankful to know about the good guys going above and beyond. Thank you Lakewood police officers and God Bless you all.
Thank you for sharing this. I have always had a great respect for everyone involved with public safety. It would be a “good news” segment on a local media outlet. I will try to alert some of them.
Chief,
To echo some of the others’ here–I am sitting up a bit straighter in my chair. There are men and women who demonstrate citizenship on a daily basis. This story filled my spirits.
bsn
I’ve known other cops moved by compassion to take money out of their own pocket to help someone like this. Wonderful illustration of how community resources can come together to really help someone past immediate mitigation to a longer term solution. Thank you officers for asking the next question after “License and registration please” to be “what’s happening with you?” and responding not with an eye-roll, but with compassion. That’s the example I want my kids to see. The many officers like this won’t make the news, but I know they’re out there. THANK YOU! Your service IS appreciated by some – as it is by my family.
Chief,
It’s so nice to see everyone’s efforts recognized and praised. I’m the daughter in Colorado and am eternally grateful to Trisha, John, Casey and Carolyn. They all went above and beyond with the hotel, food, hospital, visits and care.
Sgt Fraser visited them multiple times providing comfort, care, and food and reached out to multiple organizations to ensure they received needed care.
Casey found and called me and visited them multiple times comforting them and providing them with assistance.
Trisha was an angel. She called me and visited them on her off time to ensure their safety. She said she would stay with me until the end and make sure they were safe. She picked me up from the airport and took me to the hospitals to pick them up, got them clothes, took care of getting them through airport security because they had lost their IDs.
They both refused help for many years but this team / community didn’t stop trying to help.
Both are safe in a memory care facility- no longer homeless, malnourished, and receiving the much needed health care.
It is so wonderful to see the love and caring humanity from the Lakewood police and Greater Lakes mental health.
Truly grateful to all for going ABOVE and BEYOND and saving 2 lives and reuniting them with family.
God bless you all.