In weeks like this, police and their spouses wonder: Is it worth it?

Eric Mullins and Diana Dugan talk at the police memorial in front of the Tampa Police Department. Both are married to law enforcement officers.
SKIP O’ROURKE Times

In weeks like this, police and their spouses wonder: Is it worth it?
John Barry, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Saturday, August 22, 2009


TAMPA — In families whose daily lives orbit a gun and a badge, mothers and fathers looked long and hard at their children this week.

It was the other identity of slain Tampa police Cpl. Mike Roberts — as a husband and the father of a 3-year-old boy — that has magnified the grief and shock felt by other police families.

Police officers and their spouses can't help but ask: Is it worth it?

Many have posted their fears on the leoaffairs.com law enforcement Web site: "This is the reality we and our families face each and every day, 365, 24/7," said one posting, signed "Tampa PD Wife."

At the Tampa police headquarters Friday, near a mountain of flowers left by mourners, two spouses of Tampa officers — one a husband, the other a wife — talked about the fears they've fought and about the long looks they've given their kids.

One thing they emphasized: You don't ask your husband or wife to quit. You don't make them choose between family or job. You may think it in weeks like this one, but you don't ask it.
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In weeks like this, police and their spouses wonder

UPDATE

[SKIP O'ROURKE Times]
Cindy Roberts, with son Adam, 3, touches the freshly-etched name of her husband on the Tampa police memorial.

Police dispatch audio
'Lincoln 61 is down'
Tampa police released the last recorded radio transmission among Cpl. Mike Roberts, dispatchers and backup officers on the night Roberts was shot and killed. Listen