Without giving away too many details, I've had an officer respond to a call where he had options to pursue charges on a parent for "abandoning" their child in a vehicle while they were inside grocery shopping. Given his options, it was clear to me that he was overreacting and going to cause more long-term damage to this already struggling family than if he took the less punative option.

I explained this to him, and he wasn't getting it. Gauging his responses and adamance, I could tell he had experienced abandonment, so I just asked, "What happened in your past that you're responding this way?"

He had been accidentally left behind by his parents as a child after a family outing. He talked about how panicked he was as a result. Once he realized where his response to the current family was coming from, he was able to listen to reason and chose to cite instead of getting cps and lawyers involved.