Among the many details that need to be just right for Tuesday's memorial service is the matter of exactly how the U.S. flags should be folded.
There will be four flags, one draped over each of the caskets of the four slain Lakewood police officers, and the flags will be presented to their families.
"It takes a lot of practice to learn how to fold them so they don't bleed," said Frank Kampsen, 63, a retired Seattle police detective who in the past four decades has attended some 50 memorial services for officers.
"The flags are longer than usual so they can drape over the casket," Kampsen said. "It's considered bad protocol if there is red showing" once they are folded.
Kampsen has been in honor guards, knows the protocol and is director of the Behind the Badge Foundation, which helps families of police officers killed or catastrophically injured in the line of duty.
