President Obama with Pei Xia Chen, center, widow of slain New York City Police Detective Wenjian Liu, and other family members, after speaking on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, May 15, 2015.(Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP)
WASHINGTON — Thousands of police officers from across the world converged on the U.S. Capitol on Friday morning for the 34th Annual National Peace Officers' Memorial Service.
The hours-long ceremony is highlighted each year by a solemn reading of each of the names of officers who died in the line of duty the previous year. This year the list runs to more than 130 names.
President Obama praised the courage that officers need to have to do their jobs well.
"We are here to honor heroes who lost their lives in the line of duty -- men and women who put themselves in the way of danger, so that the rest of us could live in safety,"he told the assembled officers and their families. "They were beat cops, deputies, detectives, correctional and forest service officers, federal agents and tribal police. But to many here today, they went by different titles: caring husband, loving wife, my son, my daughter, Mom, Dad."
Tommy Davis of the Midland County, Texas, Sheriff's Department, said the ceremony is especially poignant for his department: In 2014, they lost the first-ever officer killed in the line of duty, Michael J. Naylor. He was one of 10 Texas cops who died while on the job last year.
"Regardless of how people perceive us — they like us, they hate us — we still have a job to do," he said. "We swore an oath."
Community and police relations are on the mind of police departments around the country with high-profile and controversial shootings of unarmed black men by police. The latest in Baltimore, the death of Freddie Gray while in the custody of police, led to several days of violent protests.
John Smith, 73, a retired Philadelphia police officer, said current friction between police and the communities they serve is nothing new. "I've been through this more than once."
As officials onstage prepared to read a list of the more than 200 officers who died in the line of duty in 2014, Smith pointed toward the memorial nearby with the names of fallen officers, and said, "I worked with more than one of them."
He said police-community relations would improve. "Better days are coming. It's just going to take a little time."
After the service, a wreath-laying ceremony is expected to take place nearby at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Held annually since 1982, the ceremony comes near the end of Police Week, a 53-year-old event first officially recognized in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy.
The week-long event draws tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world. Organizers say as many as 40,000 people attend most years.
The Washington-based National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund has said that 2014 was an especially deadly year for police. The non-profit group found that 126 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty last year, compared with 102 in 2013. The deaths include not just shootings but accidents and illness as well.
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