“I'll never forget the first time I killed a man. Wait...I'm getting way ahead of myself calling it a killing. Yes, I did kill him, but you couldn't really classify it as a murder. I shot him in order to save an innocent person's life, in the line of duty. I used to be a cop. Until I killed - but a justified shooting - a young man by the name of Tommy Ray Wallace. After that? I was a useless drunk. I lost everything. And the girl whose life I saved? She never even thanked me for it.”

So says Ben Striker, former cop - and hero. He lost everything that day, in the line of duty. His job, his family, his faith, his integrity, all gone in the blink of an eye.

Cops are real heroes, who more often than not don't get the respect or recognition they deserve. Heroes are only human, too, and at times, in the midst of all the horror and pain and helplessness they feel on the job - and at home, behind the badge - yes, they are vulnerable, and they may falter like everyone else.

In the book Good Cop, Sad Cop, author David Boyer provides an insight into the private lives of our men and women in blue and how much they have to deal with behind the scenes, often having to suffer in silence.

Please pray everyday for our police officers. They have a very tough job. We cannot expect them to wallow in the filth of society day in and day out without our full support and our prayers. Who among us is willing to give our lives for people we don't know or for people who don't care about us? That is what they are willing to do every day they put on their uniforms and leave home - and when they go back home, too.