Coming (Hopefully) to a State Near You: The Blue Alert Network

Ask most people about an Amber Alert and they know right away what you are talking about: an emergency alert system that enlists the help of the media and the public in finding missing children who have been abducted.

But a “Blue Alert?”

Thanks to forward-thinking leaders in two states, that concept might someday become just as well known in the hunt for criminals who kill or seriously injure law enforcement officers in the line of duty.

Following the lead of Florida, Texas Governor Rick Perry this week signed an executive order launching the Blue Alert network in the Lone Star State. The Governor’s Office said the program “will enable rapid, statewide distribution of information related to offenders who flee after killing or seriously injuring federal, state or local law enforcement officers in the line of duty.”

The program will rely on a range of communications vehicles, including electronic message boards on highways and media alerts. The Texas Department of Public Safety and the Governor’s Division of Emergency Management are currently recruiting Blue Alert partners among public and commercial television and radio broadcasters; private commercial entities; local, state and federal government entities; and any others who can assist in spreading offenders’ information following an attack on a law enforcement officer.

The concept is so simple and straightforward it’s surprising it hasn’t been implemented sooner and more broadly. But now that two of the nation’s largest states are on board, let’s hope the Blue Alert system takes hold nationwide. Data from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund show that while officer fatalities (thankfully) are down sharply this year, a police officer still dies somewhere in America every three days or so. In those situations in which the offender flees, this type of system could be extremely valuable in quickly apprehending dangerous criminals who would harm our peace officers and the public.

Read Governor Perry’s announcement, and encourage your state leaders to get on board with Blue Alert.

Sheriff Made History Simply by Doing His Job

Mementos Donated To D.C. Museum
August 14, 2008
By Michael E. Ruane
The Washington Post

Sheriff Lucius Amerson's fat Colt revolver is scarred and corroded from that night four decades ago when his patrol car crashed and burned while he chased a stolen vehicle down a winding road in rural Alabama.

His size 16 1/2 shirts, on which he would pin his badge, name plate and "sheriff" in gold letters, are creased and yellowed.

And the 1960s newspaper clippings from across the country noting Amerson's election as the first black sheriff in the South since Reconstruction are crumbling.
Read article

National Night Out at the National Mall!

Thousands of DC-area residents and out-of-town (and out-of-country) visitors stopped by the National Mall yesterday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of National Night Out with Target, the DC Metropolitan Police Department, and Memorial Fund and Museum staff.

With everything from a Junior Forensic Scientist fingerprint activity booklet to free photographs behind cardboard replicas of real Museum artifacts, our exhibit boasted some of the highest visitation of any booth at the event! (Okay, we just couldn’t beat the free cold bottles of water that Target employees and volunteers gave out in the center of all the activity! It is August in DC, after all.)

National Night Out was a wonderful success for the NLEOMF. We got a chance to meet some great law enforcement supporters and interact with a staple of the National Mall and of Washington, DC - tourists! With clipboards in hand, Museum team members approached visitors with questions about their impressions of law enforcement movies and TV shows - the characters, the plots and the scenes that have come to shape the way we view law enforcement today.

Who is your favorite TV or movie cop character?
What is your favorite car chase?
What is the best shootout?
What is the best line from a cop movie or TV show?

We hope to use the answers to our questionnaire to help form content for the Museum's "Reel to Real" Gallery.

To try out the questionnaire yourself, and help us come up with ideas for the soon-to-be-built National Law Enforcement Museum, click here.

Thank you to everyone who celebrated National Night Out 2008 - in DC or any other city! The key to keeping our neighborhoods, and our police officers, safe comes from the way we all work together -- families, communities and law enforcement.

Check out the fun in our slideshow!

Iraqi Minister Lays Wreath at the Memorial

On July 30, 2008, the Honorable Jawad Karim al Bulani, Iraqi Minister of the Interior, visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial to lay a ceremonial wreath in honor of all law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Minister Bulani’s trip to the Memorial was a joint effort by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Department of Defense.

NLEOMF Chairman Craig W. Floyd welcomed Minister Bulani, saying, “This wreath-laying ceremony is a symbol of the service and sacrifice of law enforcement officers around the world.” Floyd also noted that, since 2003, approximately 12,000 Iraqi police and security officers have paid the ultimate sacrifice. “We are proud partners in Iraq’s quest for freedom and democracy,” said Floyd.

“My visit here is to express our respect and deep appreciation of law enforcement officers. Police are the front line in defending all that is holy and sacred in life,” said Minister Bulani in his address to the ceremony attendees. Minister Bulani praised the Iraqi police, noting that they retain the highest level of loyalty to civil service and hold an important position within the community. The minister said that the Iraqi police create an environment where communities can prosper, enabling them to be active and give people hope for a better future. The Iraqi police have made great sacrifices for the freedom of the Iraqi people, he continued, rising to the functions given to them. “Iraqi police are subject to assassinations and liquidations,” he said. “Criminals tried to deter. They failed. We prevailed.”

Minister Bulani concluded his remarks by saying that Iraq remembers the great sacrifices made by the American people and our country’s help to Iraq. Thanking America, Minister Bulani said, “I salute all police forces in the U.S. for their great service.”

Memorial Fund Raffling 2008 Harley-Davidson Motorcycle to Support National Law Enforcement Museum

Tickets can be purchased at Memorial Visitors Center & Store

Over the past century, Harley-Davidson has been supplying motorcycles to law enforcement agencies across the United States. Now, friends and supporters of law enforcement have an opportunity to win a new Harley for themselves – and, in the process, support the effort to build the first-ever national museum dedicated to the law enforcement profession.

The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund is raffling a 2008 FLHR Road King, which has been donated to the Memorial Fund by Harley-Davidson. All proceeds from the raffle go toward the National Law Enforcement Museum, a world-class facility scheduled to open in downtown Washington, DC, in 2011.

The motorcycle is on display at the Memorial Visitors Center & Store, 400 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC. Tickets are $25 each, and only 2,500 tickets are being sold. They are available through the Visitors Center. The drawing will be held on September 5, 2008, and the winner need not be present to win.

Authorized by Congress in the year 2000, the National Law Enforcement Museum will be an architecturally inspiring, 95,000 square foot, mostly underground museum located just blocks from the U.S. Capitol and adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. The Museum will provide an estimated 600,000 visitors a year with a unique and comprehensive look at the law enforcement profession. The Museum will feature high-tech interactive exhibitions, interesting historical and contemporary artifacts, extensive public and educational programming, and a research center.

The privately funded Museum has launched an $80 million capital campaign, with nearly $36 million raised to date. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton serve as co-chairs of the Museum’s National Honorary Campaign Committee.

In 1908, Harley-Davidson Motor Company delivered its first motorcycle for law enforcement use to the Detroit Police Department. Since then, the company has been working closely with law enforcement groups around the country.

Last year, Harley-Davidson announced it was donating three brand new motorcycles to the Memorial Fund in support of the Museum’s “Matter of Honor” campaign. During National Police Week 2008, the Memorial Fund raffled the first of the motorcycles, a one-of-a-kind Harley Softail Classic, raising approximately $20,000.

For more information about the raffle, call the NLEOMF Visitors Center at (202) 737-3213. To learn more about the National Law Enforcement Museum and take a virtual tour, visit http://www.lawenforcementmuseum.org/.

Sheriff Greg Solano Blog: Officer Deaths Decrease During First Half of 2008

Sheriff Greg Solano Blog: Officer Deaths Decrease During First Half of 2008

Special Scholarship Recipients Visit the Memorial

For the second year in a row, the recipients of the Vantagepoint Memorial Scholarship Fund visited the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial on July 14, 2008. The Vantagepoint Public Employee Memorial Scholarship Fund is a program, founded in 2001 by the ICMA Retirement Corporation (ICMA-RC), to honor our nation’s police officers, firefighters, and other local and state government employees who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The Scholarship Fund awards scholarships to the surviving children and spouses in amounts up to $10,000 annually for post-secondary education. Historic Union Station serves as the location for the awards ceremony and, for many of the recipients, this is their first trip to Washington, D.C.

The recipients and their families were invited to participate in a “Heart of America” tour that included a trip to D.C.’s Fire Engine Company 3 and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. This year, 21 of the 40 recipients are the children of law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty.

Brian Lacey, Memorial Programs Operations Manager, showed the group around the Memorial park and provided a brief history of the Memorial. After the short tour, the group found the names of family members and friends on the Memorial and did their own etchings, taking a moment to reflect on their loved ones. It meant a lot to them to visit the Memorial during their trip to Washington and to have an opportunity to view their parent’s name engraved on the wall.

The NLEOMF offers our congratulations and best wishes to the 2008 recipients as they continue their education, and we look forward to greeting next year’s recipients of the Vantagepoint Scholarships at the Memorial.