This last Saturday Jane and I attended a symposium called “The Pain Behind the Badge” at the Irvine Police Department here in Southern California. The speaker was Sgt Clarke Paris and his wife Tracie. Sgt Clarke is a 25 year Veteran of law enforcement and is currently employed as a sergeant with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. His wife Tracie has been a Registered Nurse for 25 years. This was one of the best symposiums we had attended when it comes to understanding the statistics among law enforcement. “The Pain Behind The Badge” is a training seminar designed to reduce the one staggering statistic that we have jurisdiction over…police suicide. We learned during the event that 65,000 police officers are assaulted every year; police officers are killed in the line of duty every 53 hours and more police officers commit suicide than killed by assailants. Every 22 hours an officer somewhere in the U.S. takes his/her own life and yet there are no federally funded programs in place for dealing with police suicide. Less than 2% of the law enforcement agencies in the U.S. have a police suicide prevention program. We believe officers will continue to take his/her own life if appropriate intervention is not made. That effective intervention is the Biblical police chaplain. Will you pray for us as we continue to work with the Pomona Police Department and other agencies throughout the state of California? We need more police chaplains who can provide that official intervention. If one is interested in learning more about the “The Pain Behind The Badge training seminar, please go to their website at http://www.thepainbehindthebadge.com/