Thomson Tackles A to Z of Police Work
By Matt Phillion
Lt. Dave Thomson found his career during a hands-on experience in college.
Thomson was attending Northern Essex Community College and majoring in criminal justice when he had the opportunity to do a ride-along with a police department. One of those departments happened to be Georgetown. One shift later and Thomson was applying for work with the department.
"I ended up applying as a reserve officer in 1981," said Thomson, a Melrose native who grew up in Boxford.
Thomson remained a reserve officer until 1984, when he went to the police academy. He is the first member of his family in law enforcement, and has a brother-in-law who is a police officer in Peabody.
As the highest ranking officer below the chief, Thomson handles a number of specific tasks, including representing the department at court. He brings the department's paperwork to court and sits in on hearings as the department's liaison.
"I provide the input from the police department's side of things," said Thomson.
He also works with the personnel, assisting Sgt. Dave Armstrong with scheduling as well as handling the occasional disciplinary actions.
Thomson is also often the officer to handle questions from the public.
"Civilians a lot of times want to talk with someone in charge," said Thomson. "If they have any questions I can try to explain things, tell them why something was handled the way it was, and
the outcome."
Even as a 22-year veteran, there are things that never get easier as a police officer.
"When you see people at their worst," said Thomson. "At a terrible time, like a death in the family... no matter how many times, that part of the job is difficult."
The flip side to this, of course, is when he is able to be of assistance to someone in need.
"Helping people out and making them happy, that's the best part," said Thomson.
It's easy to forget, when you've attended hundreds of car accidents, for example, that this sort of event can become routine to an officer.
"You can't forget that this is the first time they've been in this situation," said Thomson. "People get excitable at an accident, or something we've seen hundreds of times."
Thomson wants to remember the other person's perspective when dealing with someone in a panicky situation.
"I try to put myself in their place," said Thomson. "I can understand how traumatic the situation is."
Thomson enjoys the hands-on factor of working in a small police department.
"With a small department, you handle everything from A to Z," said Thomson.
Where a larger department might have different officers for the different stages of something like an arrest - the arresting officer hands the person off to a booking officer, for example - Georgetown's officers handle every stage of their cases. Thomson sees this as a chance to have a fuller experience as a law enforcement officer.
Even something as basic as performing CPR is an event an officer from a smaller department might experience more than a larger one, which might have a full-time fire department or its own ambulance service.
"A lot of times we've been to more fatal incidents, performed CPR on more people, than a city officer," said Thomson. "It really opened my eyes when I discovered that. Lots of times, we're the first ones there."
 
This article originally appeared in the Georgetown Record , by Matt Phillion/ Mphillio@Cnc.Com
| 
