Michael Morse
 
Michael Morse joined the Auxiliary Unit in February 2004 and graduated from the Regional Auxiliary Academy in October 2004. After completing the academy he began his field training with uniform patrol until May 2005, when he took a leave of absence for deployment to serve in Iraq. After returning in November 2005, Morse went back into field training and was released in May 2006 and now works for Portsmouth PD.

While working in uniform patrol, numerous people advised him to make sure to join the PBA so that he had legal coverage in case he was ever involved in an incident. However, in the back of his mind “I really believed it would never happen to me.” After a little more pressure from a few other officers, he joined the PBA. Little did he know that within a month of joining, he would be involved in a shooting incident while attempting to make a drug arrest, killing the suspect. He immediately contacted a PBA representative and was assigned a lawyer, who was waiting for him at the detective bureau upon his return.

“Being an auxiliary officer and working for no pay puts us in a little different situation when we are involved in an incident” explains Morse. Auxiliary officers have to worry about how an incident will impact their full time jobs, which pay the bills. In addition, they have to worry about how it will impact their families and positions within the law enforcement field. “Having representation from the PBA helped relieve an enormous amount of that stress and allowed me to concentrate on my full time job, my family and getting back on the streets as soon as possible.”
“After going through this incident and seeing how the PBA assisted me through the whole process, it turned out to be the best money I have spent in a long time” says Morse. “Do not put it off thinking it will never happen to you, because it can. It may only happen once in a career, but knowing you have their assistance will relieve a lot of stress and protect you legally. THANK YOU, PBA”