The Town Council began this week’s meeting by showing their respect to the Londonderry Police Department.
At the beginning of the Monday, May 1, Town Council meeting, Chairman Tom Dolan recited a proclamation to recognize National Police Week, which will take place from May 14th until May 20th. Police Chief William R. Hart and Sergeant Jason Tuefel were present for the proclamation.
The proclamation recognizes the nine hundred thousand police officers throughout the United States, including those working in Londonderry, but served to focus on those who have been injured and killed while on duty. It noted that there were fifteen thousand assaults on officers in 2015 alone, which led to over fourteen thousand injuries. More significant, however, is that since the first recorded police fatality in 1791, over twenty thousand officers have sacrificed themselves in the line of duty, whose names are engraved on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The proclamation then went on to describe various events that will occur in D.C. and be recognized throughout the country. These include the 29th Annual Candlelight Vigil, which is sponsored by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and the 36th Annual National Peace Officers Memorial Service, which is sponsored by the Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police and Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police Auxiliary.
Upon finishing the proclamation, Chief Hart noted that the department appreciates the support the community gives them every day and have a “one-of-a-kind relationship with our community…that’s built on trust, understanding and communication”. Chairman Dolan followed up by asking Chief Hart to tell the police department that “the Town Council supports them and thanks them for their service.”
The National Police Week started off as National Peace Officers Memorial Day, which takes place on May 15th and was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy on October 1, 1962. The law was amended in 1994 by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to have all government buildings fly flags at half-staff on this day.
A memorial service began in 1982 in honor of National Peace Officers Memorial Day at Senate Park, eventually growing into a series of events that lasted an entire week, eventually leading to the creation of National Police Week in 2012. It has been known to draw in from twenty five thousand to forty thousand attendees from police departments across the United States and agencies throughout the world.