August 17, 2016
Speaking up from ‘Behind the Badge’ Around Town
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Voices Behind the Badge founder Emily Brown, with videographer Jim Modglin and contributor Sammi.
Families of police officers go online to tell their stories of what their lives are like at home By Brett Auten Their stories frequently go untold. And when they are, oftentimes it is during a time of great duress, turbulence and strain. A recently-launched Facebook page is on a mission to change that. Voices Behind the Badge is a project that Emily Brown started because she and other family members of police officers oftentimes get the same question over and over; “what’s it like being married (or related to) a police officer?” “The idea came to me to shine a positive light on our police officers,” Brown, who is married to a St. Charles County police officer, said. “We always get a ton of questions.” So far, the response was been a thumbs up. With just a couple of videos posted, the site has generated 12,000-plus views in just over a month. The videos, that feature local families, are professionally done with a helping hand from videographer Jim Modglin from Blue Ocean Media Group.
Brown has also received inquiries from people out-of-state wanting to share their stories as well. With a simple placard that reads “This is My Voice Behind the Badge” the faces, voices and the stories of the people who are behind the badge start to unfurl. “It is scary to post who the actual people are,” Brown said. “We are looking for stories that do not have any political slant or anything of that nature. We want things to be right down the middle.” Each story, while given similar questions, is individually different. “We ask them all the same questions but every story will be different,” she said. “Some are proud, some are scary. There are good moments and there are bad. We just let them talk and tell it how they want to.” Though just in its infant stage, Brown is hoping Voices Behind the Badge will expand from Facebook to a full-fledged website that addresses families’ stories nation and worldwide.
“We want to be everywhere,” Brown said. “I would love to see it expand and take off and help people realize how po-
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