Joseph Sabino Mistick: Honoring Chief Justin McIntire, a hometown hero

Police officers have the toughest job in America, and Brackenridge Police Chief Justin McIntire gave it his all while pursuing an armed and dangerous fugitive last week. McIntire was shot and killed doing what we ask our police to be ready to do — protect the public from the terror of criminal violence.

“Police Chief Justin McIntire ran towards danger to keep Pennsylvanians safe — and he made the ultimate sacrifice in service to community,” said Governor-elect and current Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

McIntire and Tarentum Officer Jordan Schrecengost, who was wounded and is recovering, were ambushed during a days-long crime spree by the fugitive. He had eluded police at several turns, and he was finally shot dead after firing at Pittsburgh police in Homewood, where he had fled after shooting the officers in Brackenridge.

Small-town residents often say “nothing ever happens here,” until it does. There are over 100 police departments in Allegheny County alone, most with a handful of officers, usually a mix of full- and part-time officers. Policymakers bemoan the inefficiencies of these small departments — usually costing over 50% of a town’s annual budget — but this is real community policing, a model that larger communities struggle to replicate.

These officers know everybody, and everybody knows them. Chiefs juggle paperwork between street patrols. Many problems, like when a local kid stumbles into trouble, are resolved locally. And officers have a chance at keeping the peace, talking down people they know or grew up with instead of responding only after the peace has been broken.

McIntire was that kind of police officer in that kind of town. Born and raised where he served and died, he worked his way up from patrolman and had an easy manner with his citizens.

“Our chief was good and kind,” Brackenridge Mayor Lindsay Fraser said. “He was raised in this community and faithfully served as a police officer for 22 years. He loved Brackenridge, and we loved him. He was, and very much still is, a native son and a hometown hero, and we are heartbroken.”

It takes guts to be a cop. They show up for work knowing that guns are everywhere, many in the hands of bad guys. Every day, they respond to calls for help knowing that when they arrive, emotions may still be running hot. And the next time you pass a state trooper standing next to a stopped car on a long, dark and lonely stretch of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, think about what it takes to do that.

In a real sense, the assault on McIntire was an assault on all police officers and, by extension, an assault on all of us who they are sworn to protect. On a regular basis, they earn far more than we pay them.

Last week, officers from the region’s other police agencies patrolled Brackenridge in cars and on foot, standing in for the Brackenridge Police Department. When McIntire was killed on Monday, his fellow Brackenridge officers decided that they would remain with him through his funeral.

“They’re not going to leave him,” Fraser said Wednesday.