Ceremony honors officers who gave their lives in
the line of duty and the families left behind
Addressing the gathering at Friday’s Fallen Officers Memorial, Gary Chief of Police Derrick Cannon opened his remarks with ‘the call we fear the most – an officer down.’
The annual Memorial,
presented by the Fraternal Order of Police Ben K. Perry Lodge #61, paid tribute to the men and women of the Gary Police Department who gave their lives in the line of duty.
And the ceremony was also for the officers’ surviving family members.
“We are forever connected. At the day of your loved ones’ swearing-in, there was an unofficial adoption,” Chief Cannon said. “We were tied and bonded together. At this time we need each other and pray that healing comes from fellowship and remembrance on days like today.”
The roll call of Gary’s fallen officers numbers 18, from the first in 1912 to the last in 2023. Alongside each fallen officer’s name were the police code “10-42” and the end date of their tour of duty.
The police community is like the military community that she came from, said keynote speaker Jennifer-Ruth Green, Indiana’s Secretary of Public Safety and Executive Director of the Indiana Dept. of Homeland Security, “They gave up their potential so we might live ours.”
Green said she spoke with the Jeffrey Westerfield family. Westerfield was number 17 in the roll call; his tour of duty ended when he was killed on July 6, 2014.
“We talked about who he was, what he liked. The intent of this day is not only for the family to remember him but for the rest of us to remember all of them,” Green said. “Since they died serving us, it is our responsibility to honor the fallen by caring for those left behind. Today, we remember them and honor them.”
OFFICERS RAISE THE flag as the ceremony begins.
A WOMAN PINS a carnation in honor of a fallen loved one.
A GARY K9 dog escorts an officer to pin a carnation for K9 Falco.
AS COMMANDER Marlin Gray speaks, uniformed police officers can be seen standing in the background.