New Jersey police officer’s act of kindness goes viral

There has been a lot of focus on the proper role of policing in communities over the past several months, but here's a great example of how integral police are to the towns they serve from Washington Township, Gloucester County.

Officer John Freitag was dispatched to a Super Wawa on a report of a man whose credit card was denied while he was trying to buy gas. The bodycam video shows Officer Freitag interacting with the man and offering to pay for the gas. The customer offers to take the officer’s information so he could pay him back, but Officer Freitag tells him not to worry about. He then goes inside, pulls money out of his own wallet, and pays for the man’s gas. What a great example of a policeman serving the community!

You can see the body cam footage of the inspiring interaction by clicking here.

Officer Freitag told ABC 6 Philadelphia he was glad he had a chance to impact someone’s day in a positive manner by showing compassion and empathy. The Washington Township police chief is Patrick Gurcsik and he told Channel 6 "We're community caretakers first, we're guardians of the community. We're not warriors. We're here to protect the community and look out for the community."

There is a form the officers have to fill out at the end of each shift and there is a space on there for explaining how they helped a community member that day.

Officer Freitag is a 2001 graduate of the Police Academy.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.