Police Week

Many people are unaware of the importance of this week, but for those of us who know it exists it's a difficult one.  In 1963, John F Kennedy Jr signed a proclamation that from then on, every year the week containing May 15th would be known as National Police Week.  If you'd like to see the actual proclamation, it's available at this location:

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=24099#axzz1MZutzh00

Anyway, police week is a time for us to come together and honor the lives of our fallen officers.  Every year on May 15th there is a National Police Memorial Service in Washington DC where the previous year's fallen officers and their families are recognized.  At this year's service there were 165 names read.  158 officers killed in the line of duty last year and 7 names that had gone unrecognized previously.  And there have already been 69 officers killed in America in 2011.  69 more names to be added next year.  That's a 10 percent increase from where we were at this time last year.  Another scary statistic is that 31 of this year's deaths have been gunfire related, a 41 percent increase over 2010.

I'm not sure why but gun violence against officers is happening in higher numbers than I've seen in the time that I've made it a point to pay attention to these things (which has been at least 5 years).  And our officers still go out every day into the fray.  They kiss their spouses and children goodbye in the morning (or the afternoon or evening - we all know that police work doesn't follow regular bankers hours) and pray to make it home safely at the end of shift.  I won't turn this into a whole "this is the police life" post because that's not what I intend for it to be.  I just want to draw attention to the importance of this week, which many people feel is just another week. 

I encourage anyone reading this to take a few moments and visit the Officer Down website at the following address http://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2011. It's certainly a sobering list to look at. Please pick an officer at random and pray for the family, friends and department who are mourning that individual.  Pray for all of them together.  Pray for our officers still serving and those who are out there right now while many of us sleep.

In total there are almost 19,000 names listed on the National Memorial walls, dating back to the first known LODD (line of duty death) in 1791.  Depending on the year, there are between 25,000 and 40,000 attendees at Police Week in DC annually.  I hope to be able to volunteer at the service one year and help carry the load for some of the families. 

This year I will be participating in both our Norman Memorial Service and the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Memorial Service. The Norman service will be held on Thursday, May 19th at the Norman Police Department where we will honor the 6 officers and deputies from the Norman Police Dept and the Cleveland County Sheriffs Dept who have been killed in the line over the last 100 years or so.  Then on Friday morning at 10 we will hold the Oklahoma Memorial at the DPS facility in OKC.  At this event we recognize every officer killed in Oklahoma in the last 5 years.  It is a truly moving service and I would love to see some of you there to share in supporting the families of these heroic men and women.   Take a look at this website (http://www.oklemem.com/Memorialservice.htm) and you will see pictures of the event over the last few years.  They deserve our support and I'm proud I'm able to be there and help wherever I can.

If you aren't able to attend a service please just take a few moments to think of our fallen officers, their families and all of those currently engaged in law enforcement and lift them up in prayer. 

This isn't a very well written post but I just wanted to get some resources out there so you can see for yourself the sacrifices that these officers are making for all of us.  I know we all understand it in a technical sense but to actually see names and pictures, to hear their stories and the numbers added up it really makes the whole thing so much more real.  Thanks for indulging me.