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For Immediate Release
April 30, 2010
Contact: David Atkinson
717-787-6535

Police Memorial Ceremony
Senator Lloyd Smucker

We place a great deal of trust in those who protect our families, our neighborhoods, and our communities.  We respect those who choose to serve in this vital way.  We admire them for their sincere sense of duty.  We grieve when one is lost to a violent act or a tragic accident.

Those who take the risks and make the sacrifices involved in law enforcement are special people.  By remembering their names and their service, by recounting the stories of those they helped and those they saved, we underscore the meaning of all they did for us.

We tend to underestimate the amount of peril there is in protecting the public.  We deplore how values have diminished, how disrespect for life has grown, how violence becomes the first resort for the unhappy and the unstable.  Our uniformed protectors are on the frontline, dealing daily with the consequences of civility gone south.

While it is encouraging when crime rates decline, that does not mean the dangers inherent in the job are reduced.  How many times, when someone acts violently, do we hear the reaction – no one saw this coming?  No matter how many precautions are taken, no matter how many standards and procedures are put in place, human behavior is highly unpredictable.  No one knows when someone's bad decision will take out a good person.

Our hope is for the day when there are no names to be added to the memorial honor roll.  So we should use such a ceremony to renew our support for our uniformed protectors.  Not just extending good wishes, but working to ensure sufficient numbers, equipment, training, and cooperation to make their jobs safer.

We can honor the fallen by sustaining our commitment to, and our investment in, effective anti-crime efforts.  By adopting laws and policies and strategies that enhance safety and reduce hazards.

Each of the individuals named today was, in their own way, a hero.  Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, their friends, and their fellow officers, today and every day.  Theirs was service of the highest order.  We shall remember the fallen forever.