West Virginia University’s Police Department is joining area law enforcement agencies at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 18 to honor fallen comrades in front of the statue outside the Morgantown Public Safety Building on Spruce Street.

University officers will join with officers from Morgantown, Granville, Westover and Star City police departments and from the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department and West Virginia State Police in placing a wreath in honor of law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty.

The ceremony is in connection with National Peace Officers’ Memorial Day (May 15) and National Police Week (May 15-21) which commemorates officers who have died over the past year and honor all officers who put their lives on the line each day.

Since 1996, an average of 165 officers have been killed each year in the U.S. in the line of duty. In 2010, 162 officers were lost in the line of duty.

Preliminary data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund show that for the 13th straight year, traffic fatalities were the leading cause of officer fatalities.

The average age of the officers killed in 2010 was 41; the average length of their law enforcement service was nearly 12 years and, on average, each officer left behind two children.

-WVU-

05/17/11

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CONTACT: Bob Roberts, Chief of WVU Police
304-293-3136