By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Thank you, Officer Matt Holbrook
Jackie

Tuesday afternoon, I was driving around Covington going from one thing to another when I got stopped by a red light on Highway 278 at Emory Street. I was the first car at the light, so I had an almost perfect view of the situation I’m about to explain to you.

Across the intersection from me, in front of the Rite Aid, I saw a Covington Police Department SUV pulled out to block traffic and with its flashing lights on. What I saw next at first warmed my heart and really upset me at the same time.

A lone officer got out of the SUV and started walking in the street. What the heck was he doing? Well, there were large rocks – the kind you most definitely don’t want to hit with your car – in the road. He stopped traffic and was picking them up.

Not wanting to obstruct traffic myself, I couldn’t get out to help the officer, but I did see someone run through the crosswalk from QuikTrip to assist him.

I then started to see cars getting obviously frustrated with the blocked traffic. The CPD SUV was blocking two lanes of traffic and the affected drivers took it upon themselves to create a detour around the emergency vehicle. I witnessed cars pulling into the opposite lane of travel and the turn lane to get around this Good Samaritan in a uniform.

I decided to reach out to CPD Capt. Philip Bradford (now assistant chief) to get more information about this officer. I wanted to let a supervisor know what he was doing and give him the proper recognition.

Bradford told me Officer Matt Holbook had been cleaning up rocks a lot longer than I saw. Apparently a dump truck had been dropping them all along his route and he, along with the city’s street department and other officers, was left to clean up the mess. Yes, the dump truck driver was cited for losing the load, but that didn’t change the fact that these rocks would have caused some serious damage if left in the roadway.

Let me put this in perspective for you. Officer Holbrook was wearing around 20 pounds of equipment around his waist. I can only assume he was also wearing a bulletproof vest. My car thermometer said it was 89 degrees outside. Would you want to be picking up rocks on a blacktop in those conditions? I don’t think so.

Thank you, Officer Holbrook for doing something I’m sure is not in your job description. It is because of officers like you, the rest of us are able to sleep easy at night and drive the streets safely every day.

Jackie Gutknecht is the managing editor of The Covington News. She can be reached at jgutknecht@covnews.com or 770-728-14009. Twitter: @jackieg1991