Here's to officers being there.

On Sunday we read about Trooper Scott Richardson and today we read about Deputy Stanley Rodwell.

We think about the many times we've complained, “If only an officer had been there.”

Too many times, we believe, people wrongly assume officers are off taking catnaps, flirting with women or stuffing themselves silly with doughnuts.

Just because they're out of sight doesn't mean they're not doing their jobs and the two stories we have reported on in the past two days proves that.

We have waded through the Monday morning quarterbacking and the Tuesday morning backseat driving of the Richardson story.

The thing is, had Richardson not wrecked his patrol car to avoid hitting a pedestrian and caught a speeder on Highway 158, no one but the officer, his superiors and the person he caught speeding 84 miles per hour at 4 in the morning Sunday would have known about it.

That Richardson wrecked his patrol car and easily could have died Sunday morning has now led to critics second guessing his motives when it is clear to us he was doing what the taxpayers pay him to do, enforce the motor vehicle laws of North Carolina.

We can sit here and criticize and speculate on what happened but the truth is, Richardson did what he was supposed to do. He clocked a vehicle going 84 miles per hour on a two-lane highway and was going to ticket the driver. This driver was going nearly 90 miles per hours and suddenly people think the trooper should have never tried to stop them.

Put your brakes on a second and think of the many times you have seen someone do something stupid on the highway and wished with your all your might an officer was around. You would have wished the same thing had this vehicle dashed past you in the opposite lane, screaming, “Oh, where is the justice? Why are they out eating doughnuts when they should be enforcing the laws?”

Richardson happened to be around Sunday morning and when his radar clock showed 84 he did what any law enforcement officer would have done — acted.

Problem was, there were two people out walking, one dead in the highway and Richardson had to act and he risked his life to save the life of a person he probably didn't know. Sure, these people had no business on the highway at that hour and were possibly coming from the strip club nearby. Luckily, Richardson saw the person in the road and took action to avoid them, nearly ending his own life.

We can just see the crocodile tears begin if the trooper had struck and killed a pedestrian. In the world of public opinion, Richardson is damned either way, by the people who think the Highway Patrol shouldn't do their jobs and those who would have screamed foul if one of the pedestrians had been hit.

We have known Richardson since he worked as a deputy and narcotics agent with the Halifax County Sheriff's Office. We have ridden with him during school zone enforcement and believe he is a highly trained and highly skilled officer who did what he had to do to avoid killing an innocent person, risking his own life to do so.

Rodwell was also there Monday morning, patrolling while people possibly thought he was sitting somewhere doing nothing.

No, Rodwell was patrolling while many of us were asleep and he happened to see something suspicious at the old Oak Grove Church, radioed the tags of the vehicle there and learned the car was stolen and wanted in a Virginia child abduction case.

The two children found in the car, 5 and 6 year boys, were returned safely home because Rodwell was doing his job, patrolling at 2 a.m. as we slumber.

We have all heard the adage about what happens when we assume and we won't repeat it here because this is a family website.

Never assume anything. Never assume that an officer is not doing his or her job, never assume a cop parked in a parking lot is doing nothing because they might be catching up on tons of paperwork from the luxury of their onboard computers. They could be looking for something nefarious, out there protecting you and your loved ones.

While Rodwell's efforts had a positive outcome, many people are still being highly critical of Richardson's story.

Because of what happened, the speeder got away, possibly going on in their hurried way to their destination or may be getting stopped in another county. Whatever happened, or could have happened, to the driver is another case left up to speculation. We're just glad Richardson is OK and we're not going to armchair quarterback or backseat drive. We're glad Richardson had the foresight and training to avoid killing a pedestrian and we're glad karma or his guardian angel was with him.

We believe both officers are to be commended and, in Richardson's case, not condemned — Editor