Local Peace Officers’ Memorial Set for May 13

This is National Police Week, and communities across the country will come together to honor those law enforcement officers who made the ultimate sacrifice, their family members, friends and fellow officers.

The 2015 memorial ceremony honoring local fallen law enforcement officers will be held at 11AM Wednesday behind the Barnwell Center on the Shreveport Riverfront. If it should happen to rain, the ceremony will be held at Riverview Theater. The public is invited.

The event pays tribute each year to 38 officers and deputies from Caddo and Bossier Parishes killed in the line of duty since 1894. Agencies participating are the Caddo and Bossier sheriff's offices, Shreveport and Bossier police departments, Louisiana State Police and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

According to a CSO news release, President John F. Kennedy in 1962 proclaimed May 15 of each year as Peace Officers' Memorial Day in honor of the federal, state and municipal officers who have been killed or disabled in the line of duty. It's one of only two days each year during which government agencies, businesses and residents are to fly their U.S. flags at half-staff.

This year, the names of 273 officers killed in the line of duty are being added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. Among them are 117 killed during 2014, plus 156 who died in previous years, but whose stories of sacrifice have been lost to history until now.