Often I have been asked why I created Brotherhood of the Badge.
That is a great question and thanks for asking. Several years back shortly after becoming a Police Officer, a deputy I knew was killed in the line of duty. Deputy Morris Taylor died protecting my community. I attended the memorial with thousands of other LE officials from around the country and was truly in awe at what the real meaning of brotherhood was. Officers from all across the globe came to honor our fallen brother, someone had never met but all were respected and honored. After attending and witnessing the memorial I wanted to do my part to allow not only Police Officers but also civilians from all across the globe the ability to honor our fallen brothers and sisters. The core purpose and what my hopes for BOTB are is to do what I can to make sure not a single officer killed in the line of duty is forgotten and that his/her family is taken care of. I ask the members of BOTB all the time to please visit the pages of the fallen occasionally just to say hello.
Robert, my real goal for BOTB is to become sort of a bride for anything anyone could need in LE. I want them to be able to interact with an organization that wears the same badge as they do, not some corporate guy sitting behind a desk trying to make a paycheck. I hope that Brotherhood of the Badge can become an organization were a LE or family member of LE can come for help, whether that be financially, or just help around the house. We have members all over and have been fortunate enough that on occasion a member will come upon a hardship and need some help and someone in the BOTB family has been close enough to be able to lend that hand. I hope that explains what I was trying to relay to you.
We have hopes of one day being able to provide discounts to our members for vehicle insurance, travel, life insurance, etc... We are currently working with several companies to accomplish this goal.
One of the coolest things I hear coming from our members is the opportunities they have had to meet other members in person. For example one of our members who lives in Malta was going on a vacation and he sent out a message to the site and had a member respond and actually invited them into their home.
Law Enforcement is not a job, it’s not something you are hired to do... it’s a calling, it’s a privilege and honor we have as members of our communities to serve and protect, make sure that the streets are a little safer. I whole heartily believe we MUST take care of each other. I am so tired of reading police resources sites were 90% of the articles/stories negatively portray LE. Listen I realize that cops go bad... but I am 0% interested in reading about that crap on a daily basis. That is why we have such a negative public perception. I am 100% interested in showing the public the sacrifices we as Police Officers make and the sacrifices our families make. I remember a conversation I had with a family member of mine a while back. We got to talking about what we as LEO's considered a high risk traffic stop. I don’t recall the exact situation but somewhere in Oregon there was a family who publicly blasted a Police Officer/Dept. The officer was in a very rural area on a road that was known to be a route used by dope dealers. The stop occurred in the hours of darkness in an area not very well lit. The driver had not immediately yielded to the officers lights and when he did the officer approached the vehicle with his weapon drawn. The family was so upset that they told the local media about this and it really put the officer and dept under fire. My family member agreed with the drivers’ family that the officer was in the wrong and although I did my best to explain why the officer did what he did they did not appreciate the situation. I think this happens a lot. People don’t understand that there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop. They don’t understand why we are very cautious during traffic stops, DV, whatever. Some do but for the most part they don’t. That is one reason we have spearheaded the effort to televise the annual Candlelight Vigil. The other is for the exact reason I started BOTB, to make sure everyone no matter where they are has the opportunity to honor our fallen.
One of the biggest things I tell the members of BOTB is to get involved with the training groups which may keep your name off of the Officer Down page.
I know that all sounds way to politically correct and soap operaish but that is the truth.
I would like to see BOTB combine efforts will all the other Public Safety Official ran organizations to help promote each other. We offer free advertising to anyone who is in LE work or is a family member of a public safety official and runs a business. We work with a lot of other LE operated sites to share information with each other.
Brotherhood of the Badge started from my home office about 7 years ago. Initially BOTB started with a website and had a section where members could sign up to receive newsletters from us. While it served its purpose, I was never satisfied with it because I wanted to create a more social network where members could chat, blog, etc... That is when I ran across the ning networks and we launched the new site.
Another hope I have is to one day build a vehicle to honor our fallen that can be taken to all memorials and police week to promote not only what we are trying to do but something that while driving down the road will remind the public that officers have given their life to keep them safe.
Lately we have really been working very hard at providing our members breaking news (positive news as well as officer hurt and killed) we started a twitter page a few weeks back and started a couple blogs all of which have been very successful.
I have said 100 times I would rather have 10 active members than 1000 that are not. We are working right now at having a BOTB representative in each state as well as the countries we cover. Sort of as a go to guy in that region/area as well as someone who can attend memorials on behalf of the BOTB family. Training and remembering our fallen... those are the two key things I am interested in.
I would love to be able to focus 100% on training and honoring our fallen. We have collectively about 7000 members covering over 60 countries and growing by about 3-4 members a day. All of this is done by word of mouth.
Another thing we do at BOTB and is something I hope we are able to do more of in the future is help brothers and sisters monetarily when they need it. Recently we had a member diagnosed with cancer. He is a disabled Police Officer and because of the severity of his cancer his wife was unable to work and their bills were really racking up. We reached out to the BOTB family and had an out pour of response. To this day members continue to send the family money. Some even have been sending money bi-weekly. It has been awesome and a true testimony to the power of the Brotherhood and Prayer. We are also working on setting up a fund from donations and proceeds from merchandise sold that can directly be donated to families in need be it injured or killed.
That was a bit winded I know but I am very passionate at what we do and are trying to accomplish.
Thanks for your time.
God Bless and Stay Safe,
Brotherhood of the Badge
Paul Bodenhamer III
brotherhoodofthebadge@yahoo.com
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"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends"
~John 15:13~
