168: Sergeant Darrin Dougherty

Police Officer

Darrin’s position is Sergeant in charge of the Traffic Unit. Prior to COVID his normal activities would include overseeing things like: Special Events, abandoned vehicles, speeding and traffic complaints, supervising school crossings, and more. Once the pandemic hit he says, “That all went out the window.”

He said, (a bit tongue in cheek) “We got the Honey-Do List….there were things a lot more exciting than we normally do.” After hearing his stories, he was referring to dealing directly with the people, helping them in ways they needed and wanted. For instance, his staff would organize and oversee opening fire hydrants for inner city kids to play. This of course had to be very crowd controlled. So, a good bit of behind-the-scenes work was done. But it brought neighbors together. Sometimes it would even become a block party with grills and laughter that was hard to come by during these times…done safely of course in the middle of a pandemic!

There was a tremendous amount of work they did to assist in food distribution.

Every Wednesday, Helping Harvest (the largest food bank in three counties) did a food giveaway. His men would see to all the traffic flow and help assure everything went smoothly. Many other food giveaways would pop up all around the city. They helped with the distribution in every event they knew about and there were a lot of them.

Even though his wife (a respiratory therapist), his son (a nurse), and his 16-year-old daughter all had COVID, Ray still feels fortunate. They all came through it and are well. Plus, he knows of so many people and businesses who struggled financially and continue to struggle. Personally, Ray knows of several multi-decade family businesses that were lost. So he’s grateful that he and his family are fine.

Ray said about the pandemic, “It’s hard to comprehend the magnitude of it. But we have to figure out how to be better.” In this regard I believe he was speaking of being better to each other. For the future he wishes, “That people see the majority of cops are truly trying to help people.” That’s the part of the profession that Ray enjoys most.