Street Signs Honor All LAPD Officers Killed In The Line Of Duty

WHAT:
A ceremony to unveil city street signs featuring the names of all 206 LAPD officers who have died in the line of duty

WHEN:
May 8, 2014
10 a.m.

WHERE:
LAPD Deaton Auditorium
100 W. First Street
Los Angeles  90012

WHO:
City of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti
Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitch Englander, District 12
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck
Families and friends of fallen LAPD Officers

WHY:
To honor the contributions of individual officers who have died in the line of duty while protecting and serving the citizens of the City of Los Angeles.

May is Police Memorial Month, and LAPD hosts a police memorial event annually to honor the memories of fallen officers.  The street signs with officers’ names are part of an effort to highlight the contributions of individual heroes – 206 LAPD officers who have made the “ultimate sacrifice” in the line of duty.

DETAILS:
The LAPD, working with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) and District 12 Councilmember Mitch Englander, Chair of the Council’s Public Safety Committee, will unveil specially designed street signs that will be posted at or near the locations where the 206 officers were killed in the line of duty.  For officers killed outside the city or country (veterans killed during combat operations), the signs will be erected near the police station of the fallen officer, the downtown Police Administration Building or the Elysian Park Academy grounds.

As part of this effort to honor the memory of fallen officers, the Department learned that many of the historic records for officers killed in the line of duty were incomplete or inaccurate.  For example, the locations of death were imprecise or undetermined in several instances, with locations only reported as rail yards or unspecified traffic collisions.  Additionally, the names and dates of death were often incorrect.  The LAPD conducted exhaustive research over 10 months to obtain precise incident information to complete the project.   This included consulting with the LAPD Police Museum, locating old police reports (homicide or traffic), searching news reports, conducting site visits, interviewing past partners of the deceased, and obtaining death records and visiting coroners’ offices for information.  In addition, detailed site surveys included maps and digital files for every location where signs were to be placed to ensure the locations were suitable for placement.

Each sign will have a designated number, and the public will soon be able to go to a virtual memorial website to learn more about the circumstances of the deceased officer.  At the website, an officer’s relatives and friends will be able to leave video tributes, letters, poems and photographs…all of which will commemorate the officer’s sacrifice.

CONTACT:
For more information, contact the LAPD Media Relations Section at 213-486-5910.