National Police Week remembers those killed in the line of duty

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thousands of friends and survivors of fallen police officers remembered those heroes during the events at national police week this past May.

There were 280 names added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., this year, 134 of whom died in 1999. According to the NLEOMF, the past year matched 1996 as the safest year for the law enforcement profession, based on the number of fatalities, in more than three decades.

The other additions this year were 146 officers who died prior to 1999, but were only recently discovered by Memorial researchers. The list includes one officer, Isaac Smith, who was killed in the line of duty on May 17, 1792, making him the first law enforcement fatality in our nation's history.

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