Police officers from across the region were in Downtown Monday honoring their fallen colleagues as part of National Police Week.
Hundreds of uniformed officers, their families and others began with a gathering at Fountain Square and marched to the memorial to fallen police officers on Ezzard Charles Drive for a ceremony honoring police men and woman who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
At Fountain Square, City Manager Harry Black said the city appreciates the sacrifice police officers make each day.
“It is through that brave sacrifice of our police men and women, and the sacrifice of their families, that our city is safer,’’ Black said. “Day in and day out, officers across our city knowingly and willingly exchange their own self well-being.”
Last year 126 police officers were killed in the line of duty nationwide. That was a 24 percent increase from 2013. So far this year 46 officers have been killed including two this past weekend in Mississippi.
Police districts in the city are holding open house this week to meet neighborhood residents.
At Fountain Square, Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell said he wishes that other cities in the U.S. had the kind of good police-community relations that Cincinnati has had in recent years.
Cincinnati is a city, Blackwell said, “where officers are guardians and not warriors and build relationships with people. And I just wish that other cities around our country had communities that loved them and care for them like the folks like the folks of Cincinnati love and care for us.”
