US officer shows the 'human behind the badge" as he pays for milk that a hard-up father was accused of stealing. An alleged shoplifter has been released without charge after an officer bought the powdered milk he was accused of stealing for his young son.
Officer Justin Roby (pictured), from Kentucky refused to detain the man on the grounds that it wouldn't "have done any good for him".
The London Police Department officer is also a father himself and said that the incident illustrated some of the ethical decisions police are faced with in their duty to uphold the law.
He said: "I think when [people] look at us, they see the uniform and the car, the tools we have on our belt.
"But behind the uniform, I'm a human being and I'm a person out in this community just like any of them. I have a little boy. I'm a father just like that gentleman was.
"We're not robots, there's a human behind the badge."
When called to the supermarket to deal with the incident on January 17, he was faced with the single dad and decided to pay for the item he was accused of stealing for his six-month-old son.
He then referred the man, who had fallen upon hard times, to social welfare organisations, including his own police force to try and give him a helping hand.
Officer Roby told WKYT: "He's already short on money, can't afford formula, so me making him appear in court he's still not going to have any food for that baby.
"As a police officer, it's not black and white for us, there's a lot of grey and you have to cipher through everything and you really need to figure out the whole story."
Article courtesy of Scott Docherty - www.policeoracle.com
