Cincinnati area police officers and their loved ones gathered Friday to honor the fallen and those still on duty. Police Memorial Week ceremonies started at Fountain Square and ended at Ezzard Charles and Central Avenue, site of the Police Memorial.
Two local officers were killed in the line of duty this year: Colerain Officer Dale Woods was hit by a vehicle while directing traffic at an accident scene in January, and the next month Clermont County Detective Bill Brewer was shot and killed by a suspect during a standoff in Union Township.
FOP Local 48 President Dan Hils quoted from an episode of the television show Blue Bloods. "America is a nation of laws. The uniform, our uniform, is a symbol of those laws and the order provided to our society by them. An attack on a police officer therefore is an attack on each of us, on every citizen."
He continued, "Clermont County will never be the same without Bill Brewer and neither will Colerain Township without Dale Woods."
Family members of Woods accepted a token of appreciation from the department before joining other groups in laying flowers at the base of the memorial.
Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac announced the addition of Rosa Regan's name to the memorial. Regan served as a matron at the city jail and was killed in an elevator accident in 1908. Isaac says her name was added to the national monument in Washington, D.C. this week as well.
Colerain Police Chief Mark Denney also added Constable John Willsey, who was killed in 1918, to the wall.
