Law Enforcement Memorials

On April 28, 1854, Phil Audax wrote to the Ohio State Journal regarding the death of Cyrus Beebe, the first Columbus (Ohio) officer killed in the line of duty:

Although the Columbus Police Department has him listed on their official memorial at headquarters, a monument to Officer Beebe has not been found.

Mr. Audax alludes to the attention that would have been given had Officer Beebe been a military man who died during wartime. Historically, law enforcement was not given equal and appropriate attention regarding memorials commemorating their death. In fact, law enforcement had incomplete records on officers killed in the line of duty. There was no national memorial honoring slain officers going back to the 1700s, and information from this period is rare. (Finally, in the 1960s, the American Police Hall of Fame opened in Florida and had the names of officers who died in the line of duty from 1960 forward.)

The now much maligned J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), probably deserves the credit for compiling national records of slain officers and later publishing details and statistics for purposes of officer survival. In the mid-1930s, Mr. Hoover began keeping data on deaths in agencies serving a population [Page 270]greater than 25,000. Unfortunately, the names, dates, agency names, and details were not retained. In 1961, the FBI began compiling data on felonious deaths, by agency name, date, and officers’ names. In 1972, as a result of an order from President Nixon, accidental deaths were included as well. The data included full details on the deaths of these officers.

One of the earliest monuments was in Chicago and was dedicated to the killing of seven officers during the Haymarket riot in 1886. (The monument later had to be moved to the police training academy because protecting it from vandalism had become too expensive.)

Early local memorials included the following:

• On May 30, 1904 (34 years after death), a plaque was placed on a boulder in a Kansas field and dedicated in honor of Abilene and Deputy U.S. Marshal Thomas Smith.
• On May 18, 1927, Kansas City (MO) police planned placement of steel markers on the graves of their slain officers. In 1929, they added a large memorial statue listing the names of slain officers.
• In 1932, Grosse Pointe Park (MI) dedicated a waterfront park.
• In 1958, the National Police Officers Association of America presented posthumous awards in Annapolis (MD) to slain officers.
• In 1962, the 87th Congress authorized the president to proclaim May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day, and the week of May 15 as Police Week (Public Law 87-726). President Kennedy later made such a proclamation.
• In 1968, Flowing Wells High School in Tucson (AZ) began holding “Bellamy Days,” which honored slain members of the Tucson Police Department. That celebration continues to this day.

In 1982, the Fraternal Order of Police Auxiliary, under the leadership of Suzie Sawyer, began hosting a Memorial Day service in the nation's capital. These services continue annually and include programs from Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc. (COPS). In the June 1982 issue of The Police Chief, President Reagan wrote, “It is most fitting that all Americans pay tribute to police officers and that we join with them and the families of their fallen comrades, in honoring the memory of those who have lost their lives while protecting their fellow citizens and communities” (Reagan, 1982, p. 8).

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