Looking Back at the Fatal Shooting at Fairview

Re shootings at Fairview Developmental Center: On July 30, a terrible tragedy occurred at Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa. A state employee was killed and two were wounded. The Fairview Developmental Center Police Department officer on duty responded as soon as she received the call over her police radio. The point I’m making is the use of the word police.

The officers at Fairview are state police officers, not security guards as your paper and others have referred to them. They don’t carry firearms. The officers perform the same functions as do city and other state police officers. They make arrests, investigate crimes, stop traffic violators, issue citations and have sometimes assisted the local city police agency in searching for armed suspects on the facility grounds. They do all of this without the benefit of a firearm. And they do it willingly.

The Fairview officer responded to the location where the one man was killed immediately without regard for her own safety, knowing she was not armed but with the intent to perform one of her primary functions as a police officer: to protect lives. That heroic act could have cost her life.

This is not a job for everyone. It takes a lot of courage and inner strength. They have earned the right to be recognized as police officers and should be addressed accordingly.

STEVE HIEBER, State Hospital Police Officer I, Fairview Developmental Center