Noting that May 15 is National Peace Officer Memorial Day, and this week is declared National Police Week, Patrick County Sheriff Dan Smith said the designation was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy in 1962.
Three Patrick County law enforcement officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty, Smith said of Deputy Sheriff Robert Bunyon Sheppard, Deputy Sheriff Walter W. Willis, and State Trooper Charles Eugene Morris.
Then, as now, the dangers are real, Smith said.
“We are on call 24/7, serving residents in this rural county,” he said, and noted that statistics show that law enforcement officers in rural areas like Patrick County “face an exceptional risk of being seriously hurt or killed in the line of duty.”
That is partly because in many cases, “our deputies and troopers answer dangerous calls alone, and they have to travel extended distances on curvy, mountainous roads to get to those calls,” said Smith, adding “they have to be on their ‘A’ game to protect themselves and those they serve.”
Although “improvements in medical technology and mandatory body armor policies have helped keep the numbers of officers dying in the line of duty lower than in previous decades,” Smith said that according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, 24,067 local, state and federal law enforcement officers have been killed in the line of duty since the late 1700s, and felonious assaults against law enforcement officers have increased dramatically in the past four years compared to previous years.
Nationwide, Smith said “recruitment has been abysmal for the past several years, and that enhances the dangers of the job. People need to know that this is an honorable profession, our people are giving themselves for the service and protection of their fellow citizens, we are not the enemy.”
Still, “the call to defund law enforcement is very much a reality, even by some here in our county,” Smith said, “and that is why I humbly ask for the support of our citizens more now than ever before.
“It is my responsibility to the deputies I appoint, and to the community we serve, to be prepared for any potential danger they may be faced, and I will not fail them in that endeavor,” the sheriff Said.
