Our firefighters and emergency room workers are always deemed heroes, and rightly so. But law enforcement at federal, state and local levels often take a beating in the secular media.

The reality, as reported by Peter Repovich in the September 2006 issue of the LAPD publication, The Thin Blue Line, is:

"Thus far this year, there have been 467 aggravated assaults on LAPD officers (with either a firearm or other weapon)…. How many more shootings or worse is it going to take for people in Los Angeles --- city leaders, department leaders, community leaders --- to take notice that our officers are under attack? What will get people's attention?"

There is no choosing of sides when a firefighter snuffs out a fire or rescues someone from flames. But when a police officer confronts someone doing evil or takes them into custody, there are nearly always innocent people who have emotional ties to that person. These folks are left with the difficult and ambiguous task of choosing between their loved one and law enforcement.

(This is why domestic violence calls present officers with the greatest danger. The person being battered --- usually a spouse, girlfriend, child --- has an emotional relationship with the perpetrator. He/she doesn't want to be hit any more, yet as soon as the police arrive, the battered person doesn't want the police to take a "loved one" into custody --- which raises the question: "Is Domestic Violence A Real Form of Love?")

And that means, when officers respond to a domestic violence incident, they --- instead of confronting one combative subject --- often face two, or a whole family. The result is often serious orthopedic and weapon injuries to the officer. I know this scenario from numerous personal experiences.

Which leads us to another question: Is the appreciation for public safety personnel the same, greater or less than before Sept. 11, 2001?

I posed this question recently to Sgt. Mitch Lambdin, an LAPD Division watch commander. "Appreciation really spiked for a while," he said. "It has dropped to a level that I would say is slightly higher than before 9/11, but for the most part is about the same."

And the public perception of public safety personnel has a decided impact on how the ranks of public safety agencies are staffed, and replenished. Here again, I must make a distinction between law enforcement and other types of public safety. If the fire department has two openings, the line of applicants to fill that spot will circle around the block. By contrast, LAPD and other law enforcement entities nowadays struggle to fill the academy classes with recruits needed to meet the attrition rates.

Why? Potential candidates for law enforcement careers see the secular media portrayals of police work. In an age when every kind of authority (federal, state, local, church) is deemed suspect, young people ask themselves, "Do I want to live my life under that kind of magnifying-glass scrutiny? Do I want to subject my present/future family to the stigma that has come to be associated with protecting and serving?"

The stigma comes from a very small percentage of officers who must make life-and-death decisions in split seconds, and who sometimes make errors in judgment or perception. But then their story is magnified to the point of distortion, without regard for others doing exemplary work.

I will say this from my own personal experience: as a profession, I have not known any group of individuals more dedicated to the common good, hard-working, community-minded than our federal, state and local law enforcement personnel. And, I am very proud to say, like the citizenry of the greater Los Angeles area, 25 to 50 percent of our officers are Catholic.

Dare I make a comparison with the flow of applicants to the priesthood? My seminary college class in 1964 started with 96 candidates for the priesthood. Approximately 26 went on to become priests. It is a wonderful life for us who live it.

But do people "on the outside" have the same perception as we who are living it? After years of being the "targets" of secular media, I think not. And law enforcement has been under this barrage for decades! Law enforcement can be a thankless profession in 2006.

And even their ability to receive spiritual nourishment, regardless of their beliefs, is under fire. The celebration of National Prayer Day by LAPD (20 to 30 minutes of non-sectarian attention to God authorized by Congress in the 1950s) has been challenged. Mentioning God at Police Academy graduations is being challenged.

If our officers are not swearing their oaths to serve God and God's values, to whom are they expected to swear their oaths?

From their point of view, as the secular media and civil liberties groups hammer away at eliminating all forms of religion and even spirituality, the officers themselves seem more and more to express the need for chaplain services and the kind of support offered by the Desert Refuge for Peace Officers.

The Desert Refuge --- which proudly sponsors the annual Public Safety Mass (see box) --- offers a place of hospitality, healing, and solitude for law enforcement personnel and their families. The Refuge welcomes all races, cultures and faiths in the Catholic ecumenical spirit, to foster personal and spiritual awareness rooted in God's love for all.

I invite anyone seeking information about the Desert Refuge, or about the Public Safety Mass, to contact me at (323) 298-7174. And please --- pray for our public servants.

Father Michael McCullough is LAPD/FBI chaplain, and executive director of the Desert Refuge for Peace Officers.