You may have seen the photo a few years ago. In it, a Colorado officer is holding a two year-old little girl on his shoulder by the side of the road and pointing up to the heavens. He is also singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ to her as he diverts her attention away from the horror going on behind them as first responders extricate her mom, dad, and siblings from a terrible crash. Mom and sis were airlifted to an area hospital. Two other children were removed by ambulance. Dad, however, didn’t make it.

Officer Nick Struck’s act of compassion via that photograph went viral and worldwide.

“When, uh, when I was out in the field, I was singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ and pointing to the lights on the fire truck. And she put her arm around my shoulder, just like my daughter does. And that’s really when the emotion starts kicking in, in that moment, having that little girl in my arms. Yeah. She fit exactly like my daughter did. And you know, one of the things with my daughter is, uh, I always want to encourage her and uplift her and make sure that, uh, she’s always built up. And so for that little girl that I was holding, that’s really the goal because I want her to be protected as much as possible from what had just happened, this horrific accident. And so when I was talking to her, she wasn’t really responding back to me. So then I went to my singing skills, which are not the best and definitely not Barry White by any means, but I started singing it to her and you know, it just kept going on and on, and that seemed to work. So, you know, when it works, you just keep doing it.” Continue reading Have You Ever Tried ‘Compassionate Policing’? | Police Podcast →