| WBAL's John Patti talks to Craig Floyd Chairman of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund |
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The Way Police
Officers Are Dying Is Changing
Thursday, May 10, 2007
WBAL Radio as reported by John Patti
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Over the past 30 years, the number of
law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty due to automobile
accidents has increased by about 40% while the number of officers shot and
killed in the line of duty has declined 36%.
National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund Chairman Craig Floyd says the numbers suggest that more safety equipment is needed to protect officers as they perform their law enforcement duties.
National Police Week begins Sunday with a candlelight vigil at 8pm at the National Law Enforcement Memorial along Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C.
The names of seven Maryland law enforcement officers will be added to the memorial. Five Maryland officers who will be added who died in the line of duty in 2006. Two of them died in vehicle accidents.
The names of two officers killed in Maryland's past will also be added.
Those who died in 2006 were Officer Anthony Byrd from Baltimore City, Deputy First Class William H. Beebe Jr. From the Harford County Sheriff's Office, Correctional Officers Jeffrey Wroten and David McGuinn and Corporal Robert Krause of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police.
The names of Washington County Sheriff's Deputy Thomas Hardy who died in 1905 and Correctional Officer Alfred Walker who died in 1927 will also be added.
145 officers were killed nationwide in the line of duty in 2006, the lowest since 1999.
Maryland has lost 258 officers in the line of duty throughout history. That compares to more than 1400 officers killed in the line of duty in California. Floyd says Maryland falls about in the middle of the pack.
Other activities during National Police Week will include a noon ceremony on Tuesday, May 15th at the U-S Capitol. All Americans are urged to fly flags at half staff that day to honor the memory of those law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
