Methuen Police Ride-Along Highlights Daily Dangers Officers Face

METHUEN (CBS) -- For Methuen police officer Dan O'Connell it's never just another call.  Twenty-two square miles of city look just a little different today.

"Every police officer in America is doing those extra things, checking twice and making sure they're going to come back home to their family," O'Connell tells WBZ-TV.

He woke up to the news of five police officers killed in Dallas in an ambush.

"It's horrifying to think of police gathering to protect the peace and somebody shoots purposefully," said O'Connell.

Even a call to check out a cellphone scam has officer O'Connell thinking ahead.

"There's all these scenarios you have to develop in your head and you have to prepare for the worst of them and hope for the best," he said.

At police headquarters the flags are lowered to half staff which he says has become all too common and sends a chill.  At 1:00 p.m. he stood by his cruiser in solidarity with other officers around the state for a moment of silence.

"Every time you put that black band over your badge it means somebody didn't go home that night," O'Connell said.

His emphasis has always been on community policing, but worries now about the line between police and the community.

"Hopefully we're on the side of winning people over and we're here to help," he said.

But with every call he answers today there's a heightened sensibility about the safety he thinks about everyday.

"You want it to be a normal day, and you perform your job like you do every day but it's hard.  It makes the hair stand on the back of your neck," he said.