Sunday, May 13, 2012

24th Annual Candlelight Vigil

Tonight, the nation paused to formally dedicate the names of 362 fallen law enforcement heroes, added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in 2012. Of the 362 names, 163 were officers killed in the line of duty during 2011 and 199 were names of officers previously undiscovered.


Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, and U.S. Attorney General, Eric H. Holder, Jr., delivered remarks. Attorney General Holder and Concerns of Police Survivors National President, Linda Moon Gregory, led the lighting of the candles.

Detective Brian Phillips, La Porte (IN) Police Department; Lieutenant Mavis Johnson, Baton Rouge (LA) Police Department; and Officer Bridget Sanchez, Miami-Dade (FL) Police Department, all performed moving musical tributes during the ceremony.

The national monument now contains the names of 19,660 fallen law enforcement officers—from all 50 states; the District of Columbia; U.S. territories; federal law enforcement, corrections, railroad and military police agencies—who have died in the performance of duty throughout U.S. history, dating back to the first known officer death in 1791.

Special thanks to Officer.com for providing a free webcast of tonight’s services.

1 comment:

  1. Wonderful photos, I attended this event on behalf of British Police for the third time and I found the event to be very well organised yet again, extremely dignified and deeply deeply moving. When the Law Enforcement family comes together to provide support to the survivors it provides a shining example to the world.

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