Page 31 - December 2019 FOP Magazine

people. We get to change their lives and their family’s lives. It’s definitely a calling.”
Fully communicating the heroic opportunity of being a Chicago Police Officer takes us back to this past April Fools’ Day with Doyle, climbing over barricades onto the 106th Street bridge that had been closed. She had known the reward of bringing groceries to that elderly woman and the smile that always greeted her. She had thrived on getting to know the backstories of the citizens on her beat and how that would help her help them. And when you put it all together, perhaps there is nothing more heroic than being a patrol officer in Chi- cago.
But when Doyle saw this woman shivering in a tank top, skirt and heels that looked like they would cause her to fall from the bridge at any second, she felt something within her- self that she had never sensed. She told the firefighters on the scene that she was handling this response and slowly but surely talked the woman off the ledge, one step at a time.
“It was probably the most nerve-racking 30 minutes of my life,” Doyle shares. “When we pulled her over the barricade, there were like 15 officers and 20 firefighters watching. My sergeant told me, ‘You did an amazing job. Go home and pour yourself a glass of wine.’ Like the biggest relief came over me. In a million years, I never expected to talk a woman off a ledge. In a million years, I never expected to get a lifesaving award. You never know what’s ahead of you in your day, but the most rewarding part is that she’s alive.”
Spoken like a true hero.
Officers Artur Tomkow (left) and Gregory Stranski were stopped at a red light when an offender emerged from the sunroof of a car and started shooting at their vehicle. Officer Stranski returned fire and struck the offender.
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ DECEMBER 2019 31