Former Colorado State Patrol Trooper Todd Martin, who has been in two gunfights with criminal suspects in Southwest Colorado, had trouble sleeping Thursday night after an ambush of Dallas police officers.
His insomnia wasn’t the result of past traumas being stirred; rather, it was a concern for his friends and family who are still in law enforcement.
“It affects me enough to where I’m thinking about them in the middle of the night,” he said. “I just worry about the guys I used to work with that are still in it.
“It’s almost like this is the new normal,” he said. “Guys are getting killed almost on a daily basis all over the country.”
Local agencies reflected Friday on a turbulent week for law enforcement. Two videos circulated on the internet show black men being shot by police officers in Minnesota and Louisiana. The videos sparked nationwide protests, including in downtown Dallas, where demonstrations turned violent Thursday as a sniper opened fire on police, killing five and wounding several others.
Tensions grew Friday, with officers coming under gunfire in Georgia and Missouri, including an officer who was critically wounded when he was shot during a traffic stop. Before the Dallas shooting, a man shooting indiscriminately at police and passing vehicles in Tennessee killed a woman who was driving down a highway to deliver newspapers.
Other police departments reported being bombarded with threats, and some implemented new policies requiring officers to patrol in pairs, according to The Associated Press.
For Martin, though, a career in law enforcement is no longer one he’d recommend to anyone who is on the fence about it.
“I enjoyed law enforcement when I was doing it, but I can’t imagine anybody wanting to choose it for a career anymore,” he said. “There are plenty of other things to do that are less stressful. Nobody is doing it for the money, that’s for darn sure.”
Martin was shot twice, once in the arm and again in the leg, while trying to stop three gunmen who stole a water truck and killed a Cortez police officer before sparking an epic manhunt on May 29, 1998, in the rugged high-desert near the Colorado-Utah border.
He was involved in another shooting Nov. 6, 2005, on Coal Bank Pass, between Durango and Silverton. In that one, a man fired multiple rifle shots at Martin and other officers while evading a traffic stop. The suspect was killed by a San Juan County Sheriff’s deputy.
Martin, 53, retired in February 2015 for medical reasons after serving 10 years with the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office and 16 years with the Colorado State Patrol.
Law enforcement has received little respect during the past 20 years, he said, and almost none now.
“It’s almost like everybody is trying to catch an officer doing something wrong,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know it’s way worse than it’s ever been.”
Martin said he didn’t realize how dangerous law enforcement is until he retired.
Dallas police and other officers across the country must feel like they’re walking around with a target on their backs, he said.
“I feel bad for these guys,” he said. “It’s almost like too hard to watch. ... It’s tragic for America, because it’s kind of building up to this. Every incident has been getting worse and worse and worse. And then this happens.”
When he was an officer, he spent equal time training on firearms and on how to de-escalate situations – or “verbal judo,” as it was called.
Martin urged residents to be supportive of law enforcement, especially in times like these.
“These people are their neighbors and the people they go to church with,” he said. “They’re just trying to protect their own community that they live in.”
shane@durangoherald.com
