Fleetwood police chief helps save UK teen's life

wfmz.com ^ | 10 October A.D. 2020 | Caitlin Rearden

[lightman]

FLEETWOOD, Pa. - About a month and half ago, in Lancashire, England, in the coastal town of Fleetwood, a teenager having suicidal thoughts sent a message to the Fleetwood Police Department's Facebook page.

His distraught state of mind prevented him from realizing the message went a continent away, to Fleetwood, Berks County, and to the attention of police Chief Steven Stinsky.

Stinsky engaged with the teen on Facebook Messenger.

"I started looking through social media," Stinsky recalled. "I ended up finding the subject's Facebook page, and based on the vernacular he used in conversations, it wasn't long before I realized he was actually across the pond in Fleetwood, England, not Fleetwood, Pa."

Recognizing the person was in crisis, the chief continued to build a rapport with him, while at the same time getting in contact with his counterparts overseas.

"All the things he was giving me, the places he was going, I was relaying either through email, through phone calls or through text to the police in Lancashire," said Stinsky.

"Very rarely do we get someone who is in crisis now and we are relying on someone who is in another country doing crisis interventions on our behalf," said Chief Inspector Gary Crowe with the Lancashire Constabulary in the United Kingdom.

Stinsky's conversation with the teen lasted for three hours before he was safely taken into custody to get help. It was a feat that earned Stinsky the U.K.'s highest honor for law enforcement, the Chief Constable's Commendation.

Crowe said, to his knowledge, he doesn't recall another time the award was given to someone outside of the country, but he said the most important thing is that a life was saved. Stinsky agreed.

"Someone who was in crisis, someone who was vulnerable and had nowhere else to turn, even though they're in the U.K., were able to reach out to a U.S. police officer, and they still did the right thing," Crowe said.

"It doesn't really matter if I'm texting somebody inside a house across the street or texting somebody across the ocean," said Stinsky. "When everybody is rowing the boat in the same direction, good things happen."

[lightman]

Many law enforcement officers in Pennsylvania have committed to memory the Call to Honor:

I am a Pennsylvania State Trooper, A Soldier of the Law. To me is entrusted the Honor of the Force. I must serve honestly, faithfully, and, if need be, lay down my life as others have done before me, rather than swerve from the path of duty. It is my duty to obey the law and enforce it without any consideration of class, color, creed, or condition. It is also my duty to be of service to anyone who may be in danger or distress, and at all times so conduct myself that the Honor of the Force may be upheld.

"Of service to anyone who may be in danger or distress"...on either side of "the pond"!

[lightman]

Pennsylvania Ping!

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Thanks to pa_dweller for sending the link to this heartwarming story!

[ConorMacNessa]

Thanks very much for posting this, Lightman. By the way, I'm a native of the City of Brotherly Love - please add me to your ping list.

"Dia shábháil ar fad anseo!"

[SES1066]

Match this with the calls for defunding and ... deep sigh! I COMPLIMENT HIGHLY this Officer who did keep the ideal on “Serve and Protect” in this case.

[rwa265]

I enjoy visiting my daughter in Chester Springs, PA, who lives about 30 miles from Fleetwood. Very nice area.

The last time I was there, I visited Daniel Boone’s birthplace near Birdsboro, which is about 20 miles from my daughter’s house. Coincidentally, my other daughter lives about 20 miles from the Daniel Boone home in Defiance, MO, where he lived out his last days.

[lightman]

I seldom get into Berks other than to Reading or Wyomissing...unfortunately, because the rest of the county is beautiful “red America.”

[libertylover]

Interesting. I live about 15 miles from Boonesborough. It’s not a town, there’s only a state park there with a fort replica. My cousin lived there when his dad worked the locks there on the Kentucky River. Small world.

[Bigg Red]

Good story about a good policeman.

I hope the young man is getting the help he needs.

[SteelPSUGOP]

Berks COunty is a pretty great place. Still rural and inexpensive, yet close enough to big cities if you like that sort of thing. Reading is a shithole but there are so many good people there......the poverty is crushing.

[rwa265]

We had a wonderful family vacation a few years ago south of Lexington. We stayed in a house on Lake Herrington, rented a pontoon boat, took a riverboat cruise on the Kentucky River, paid a visit to Fort Harrod, and visited Shakertown. Unfortunately, the weather was unusually cool for July so we didn’t spend much on the lake. Instead, we roasted marshmallows around a campfire. A good time was had by all.