News

11/17/2014 - NPD Facebook Post - 11.16.14 - Posting Missing Persons
Well, I have read through many of the comments regarding a post I placed on the Naugatuck PD Facebook Page last week and waited before entering my comments. The post I’m referring to was a press release concerning a missing juvenile that has recently gone missing several times over the past few weeks.

I would like to address this issue in explaining the reason we post these “missing persons” on our page… Now, I think most people “get it” – however there is a small group of followers of our page that posted comments indicating their frustration with the issue of a “missing person” label being used for a juvenile that has more than likely runaway.

So, lets start with why the Naugatuck PD posts missing persons – and more specifically teenagers that are habitual “missing persons” or “runaways” …. The fact of the matter is, we do it first and foremost because are a professional law enforcement agency – we do not have the right, nor should we have the right, to “pick and choose” which missing persons cases we will investigate.. ALL missing persons are important for one simple reason…they are – “MISSING” persons.

Now the reason they have gone missing could be for one of a very wide array of reasons…but there is one thing that EVERY case we investigate has in common – someone does not know where someone else is AND they were concerned enough that they contacted the police to ask for help…and quite frankly – if it is important to that person, then it HAS to be important to us.

Now, I will say that as police officers (and I will speak for them all – as I have been doing this job for over twenty years and feel very secure in doing so for this particular statement!) – as police officers we do become frustrated with these types of reoccurring issues, we have many of these types of incidents we deal with on a very consistent – if not a daily basis …we deal with home and commercial burglar alarms going off at the same locations over and over, speeders, speeding up and down the same roads over and over, couples that fight and break up – then get back together and fight again, and the list goes on and on…. But we have to handle each and every call consistently – regardless of our feelings, because we are professionals…. and this is what the job of policing consists of.
Now, we can not solve every problem… there are some issues that we can only be of assistance with and no matter how much we try to help, we will not be able to solve the problem… and then in other cases, we can help – but it will come in the way of a very long road of setbacks and failed attempts…. but this is all we can do is try and continue to give our best.

…You can go to the bank with this one – the moment a law enforcement officer becomes complacent and doesn’t handle a situation such as these with the same scope of caring and professionalism he/she did the first time – is the moment you can guarantee the circumstances will be different and not what he/she assumed them to be – and THAT will be the moment the officer will realize they may have not have only made a career ending decision …. It may be a life ending one for either the officer or the person we were sworn to protect.

We place missing persons on the face book page and send them to the media because it works… plain and simple… We have had people found countless times because we got the word out and the person is located based on the message we sent out. So…we will continue to do so… because it works!!

Now – I’m not saying people should not comment on these posts we put up – in fact, we want you – our followers and supporters - to comment… we may not always agree, but we can always be honest and voice our opinions (…so long as we do so with mutual respect for one another…), but please remember that everything is not always as it seems… Life has a way of humbling us when we think we have it all figured out, but truth be told – none of have or ever will “figure it all out”.

Thanks for listening and I wish you all a safe and happy Sunday

- Lt. Bryan Cammarata