The Knock

Listen to a police officer's experience with the problems of underage drinking and driving.

As a police officer with more than 17 years experience, I've seen an entire range of emotions from the joy of reuniting a lost child with a parent to the death of a newborn infant. Despite the thousands of calls for my services over the years, only a handful remain etched in my mind.

Close your eyes. I want you to imagine that it's Prom Night and your son or daughter left the house just a few short hours ago. There they were all decked out in their formal gown or rented tux and ready to celebrate the completion of a tough four years of high school. You doze off around midnight and begin to dream back to the glorious times of when you were in high school, and the world was yours for the taking.

At two o'clock in the morning, you hear a noise that wakes you out of a sound slumber. You listen and you hear it again. Someone is knocking at the front door. You put on your slippers and creep downstairs. You peek outside the drapes expecting to see your son or daughter who most likely forgot their house key, but instead there are two police officers, badges glaring off the porch light. Your heart begins to beat rapidly, you open the door and see the somber faces on the officers. They don't even have to say a word...

Working together requires that we see issues from different perspectives. We can come up with better solutions if we try to see the problem of underage drinking and driving from the points of view of those standing on either side of that door.

-- Lt. David Falcinelli
Montgomery County, Maryland
Department of Police