Family members and public servants honored the ultimate sacrifice made by law enforcement officers on Sunday at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.
The event was the center of Police Week, which this year will be commemorated from May 14-20.
Arlene Knox came to Washington, D.C., from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“I’m here for my husband, Officer Charles Knox,” she said. “He was killed in the line of duty in 1992.”
Charles Knox’s name is among the more than 22,000 on the memorial at Judiciary Square, tangible testimony to the calling of the career and its dangers.
And for those who come to remember, it’s something more.
“It feels very soothing to see all the outcome of everybody coming, that your loved one was never forgotten, and that their life was for a reason,” Knox said.
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The week is filled with such tribute, with representatives of departments from across the country and Canada taking part.
On Sunday, the drone of the pipes wafted across the Capitol Reflecting Pool during a competition in which honor guards and pipe bands displayed their skills, always mindful of the solemn cause that brought them there.
“The pipes are just part of sending a soul to heaven,” Officer Jason Back, of Fort Worth, Texas, said.
Back led a police pipe band, keepers of a tradition harkening back to the early days of law enforcement in the United States.
“The tradition started a long time ago, with the police and fire service coming over from Scotland and Ireland, and a lot of guys… bringing their culture over. It just spilled over into the police and fire service ‘cause it was so dangerous,” he said.
Lt. Ebony Keywood, of the Georgia State University Police Department, is an honor guard commander herself, but she has also been escorted by an honor guard.
“I’m also a survivor,” she explained. “I lost my husband about eight years ago.”
She knows all too well the comfort it can bring to the bereaved.
“That means a whole lot to me, to see that these groups do that every year,” Keywood said.
And amid the ceremony and solemnity of the week of events, there is also inspiration to be found. For Knox’s son, Paul Stryker, the sacrifice of a man he never knew was motivation.
“My mom’s first husband was a big inspiration for me to get involved with law enforcement,” he said. Stryker is now with the Ocean City Police Department.
