“Meeting,” DB yelled, then walked over to the door that led to the back of the station.
Getting up, I followed him, hearing the others doing the same behind me. We’d known there was a meeting happening today, but he’d kept quiet on what it was about, so I was intrigued.
Opening the door to the hallway, he motioned for us to go through while he held it open.
Stopping about ten feet in, I waited for him to close the door and join us.
“Okay, I know this is strange, but with shit going on just now, I wanted us to discuss how Piersville Police Department operates. You’ll think you know all of it anyway, but this is important for me, you, and the rest of the town to know,” he told us as he moved over to the door to the first conference room.
Walking in behind him, we all sat down at the table and waited. “As you know, we’ve expanded the building. With the increase in the population and size of Piersville, we have to keep up and have enough facilities available just in case,” he said, looking at us all one by one. “We also have an official dedicated safe room now.”
I knew that citizens had come to DB to sit securely in one of the cells on some occasions, but hearing one was dedicated to them?
“Uh,” one of the newer guys, Carter, murmured. “A dedicated safe room? What for?”
Resting his ass on the corner of the table at the top of the room, DB looked at us all with a grim expression. “As you know, Jarrod Klein was attacked last year by a man who was beating his woman in a bar. Jarrod came here to remove himself from the situation after the asshole expressed his intent to ‘hunt him down,’ making it easier for us to catch him with less threat to people around. This isn’t the first time this has happened. We also had some people try to attack Lars and Tony.”
Lars and Tony were married with two young daughters. They were some of the friendliest and funniest guys I’d ever met, so someone targeting them pissed me off.
I couldn’t help the question that came out of me. “Because they’re gay?”
DB’s look answered it perfectly. Fucking assholes.
“We’ve assisted people in this way since the Department was first built here. It doesn’t matter if it’s a woman who feels threatened by a man or if someone’s being singled out because of color, religion, sexual preference, gender, anything at all. If we can keep them safe, we do it.”
Thank fuck for that.
Glancing at Alejandro, another one of the newer members, I saw him frowning and understood his confusion. This wasn’t run of the mill behavior or policy, but we were a small town that looked out for our people. “How does it work, though? Surely it wouldn’t be safe if someone told outsiders about it because then everyone would know about the room and where to get the person they were after.”
Nodding, DB shifted slightly to get more comfortable. “That’s a good question. It’s not a secret to the residents of Piersville that the room exists. Before now, we would pretend to arrest them, or they’d come in voluntarily, and they’d be locked in a cell. Now we have a room downstairs set up like a panic room. It was financed by someone who wants to remain anonymous, but it’s an important addition.”
Anonymous my ass. I’d bet anything it was Hurst Townsend who’d done it.
“That’s freaking cool,” Alejandro murmured.
“Safety for everyone is the priority as law enforcement officers. I have a zero-tolerance policy, and I expect you all to abide by it. Everyone is to be treated equally and fairly, and we protect people who can’t protect themselves.”
All of us murmured our agreement.
“Now, the next point,” he tapped a box under the table with his foot. “Over the last two years, the mayor has kindly changed our uniforms five times. This is apparently the last change.”
A round of groans met this news. I’d had two uniform changes since I’d joined, and I was over it.
Pulling the large box out, he opened it and pulled out black polo shirts with P.V.P.D. on the front and the sleeves.
“We’ve officially been registered as P.V.P.D. now, the V standing for Ville. You’ll wear these every day, but the most crucial change is your protective vests. The new ones have Piersville Police Department on the front and Police on the back. An anonymous donor also financed these after a meeting with the mayor.
“I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but research has been done on our uniforms' impact on our ability to do our jobs. Previously, we’ve worn a range of it, and what was discovered to be the most user friendly is what we’ve got now.” He told us, looking behind us as the door opened and the new filing chick pushed in a large cart with wrapped black packages in it.