A heartfelt thanks go out to Officer Cassidy
To the Editor:
On Sunday afternoon, February 21, I was walking down Victoria St. toward Chelsea St. I saw a young woman at the corner who was obviously distressed. As I rounded the corner, I noticed a patrol car and an ambulance arrive on the scene with no lights or sirens blaring.
I saw Officer Cassidy approach this young woman in a kind non-threatening manner. The first words he said is that he was there to help her in a kind voice. She was still agitated and what I saw was an officer who totally de-escalated the situation. Officer Cassidy had her sit on the curb and he spoke to her at eye level.
At that point I left. Because of Officer Cassidy’s kindness and professionalism, a dire situation was avoided.
It was apparent that Officer Cassidy has been trained to deal with people who are not a threat to themselves or others and are obviously in some kind of emotional distress. I appreciate that the Everett Police Department trains their officers how best to evaluate a person and take a better approach to deescalate a situation but it was Officer Cassidy who put his training into action and Officer Cassidy should be recognized for that.
I’m assuming there was a call placed to 911 concerning this incident, if that is true, the proper information was relayed to the officer because I heard no sirens. The link to the officer from the 911 operator is crucial in relaying information and how an officer approaches the scene. I have an 18-year-old daughter, on the autism spectrum so this incident caught my attention. My heartfelt thanks go out to Officer Cassidy.
Jean McAdam