Editor,

As head of law enforcement in Island County, I am humbled and honored to see the support of our local law enforcement that was displayed as a two-page advertisement in both the Whidbey News-Times and the South Whidbey Record.

To each and every business who sponsored this tribute to local law enforcement, I would like to personally thank you for your message of kindness and empathy of our chosen profession.

To whoever was responsible for writing the script, I would like to thank him or her for their intuitive messaging, which is often times lost in much of today’s rhetoric about the role of policing in the 21st century.

To the community, I would ask that — if you didn’t see this display in the Sept. 30 edition of both newspapers — please go back and read it for what it is: a simple thank you to those that wish to be recognized as peace officers rather than simply police officers.

Mark Brown

Island County Sheriff