May 15 - National Peace Officers Memorial Day

On May 3rd, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed Presidential Proclamation #3537, designating May 15th of that year and each succeeding year, as National Peace Officers Memorial Day, in honor of Peace Officers throughout the nation who have lost their lives or become disabled in the line of duty.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) is the recognized authority on documenting peace officer line of duty deaths in the United States and memorializing the sacrifices of some of the bravest and selfless men and women in our society.

Here are but a few of the statistics NLEOMF offers on its website:

Since the first documented law enforcement death in 1791, some 19,660 Peace Officers have died in the line of duty. Over the past decade (2002-2011) 1,559 Peace Officers died in the line of duty, or about 156 each year.

Of those 1,159:

• 570 were shot to death (remaining the single highest cause of line of duty death for Peace Officers)
• 544 died in motor vehicle crashes
• 173 died from illnesses certified to have been job-related
• 140 were struck by vehicles
• 29 died in aircraft accidents
• 26 drowned
• 10 were stabbed to death
• 9 were beaten to death and,
• 2 were strangled to death

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed legislation which, among many other things, amended the nation's Flag Code (Public law 87-726) to direct that the flag of the United States be flown at halfstaff on Peace Officers Memorial Day unless that day is also Armed Forces Day (which, in the U.S., falls on the third Saturday of May each year.)

If you display a United States flag at your residence and/or place of business on May 15th, and if it can be adjusted on its flag pole, please lower your flag to half staff for the day, to honor those Peace Officers throughout the nation who have died or become disabled, in service to their communites.

Thank you.

John Greet is a retired Long Beach Police Department officer.