Puyallup Police Chief Responds To Message Left At Officer's Home

PUYALLUP, WA — The Puyallup Police Chief has posted an open letter responding to an anti-police message left outside one of his officer's homes.

In a photo posted by the police department, the message in question appears to be chalked in the street outside the officer's driveway, reading "Pig Lives Here" and "ACAB" a popular anti-police slogan. The officer's patrol vehicle can be seen parked in the driveway. The message was not accompanied by any explicit threat or call to action.

On Saturday, the police department shared the image along with an open letter from Police Chief Scott Engle describing the officer in question and defending the role of police in society:

One of our police officers found this in front of his house recently. I wanted to share a little about this police officer.

I hired him a few years ago. I remember his interview. He wanted to make a difference. He wanted to continue to serve.

You see he came to us after a long and dedicated career in the US Army. He saw law enforcement as a way to continue to serve and give back. He had a passion in his eyes in that interview that you could tell he wanted to make a difference.

Today he’s a police officer. A husband. A dad. A grandfather. A brother. A neighbor. A veteran. He’s been a coach. He enjoys fineness. And he wants to serve and protect.

Engle goes on to insist that police are a necessary constant in America, something which has been called into question over recent weeks amid mass protests against police brutality and racism in America: Seattle in particular is considering a proposal that would defund the police and instead use that money for a system sending medics and mental health professionals to respond to mental health crises.

No such proposal to defund the Puyallup Police Department has taken root, but Engle does take time to defend the police's role in society.

I believe in our police officers. I stand with them 100%. They work in a profession that most will never understand and never could do. Police families this past year have been put through some of the most unbelievable and stressful times I have ever seen in my career. It used to be that people saw a police car in their neighborhood as a sense of safety. Unfortunately we are living in a world now where police officers are worried about their own homes. And that’s just the honest truth.

Read the full letter below: