Law enforcement officers make their living fighting crime. They have taken an oath to protect the citizens of their community, county and state, and they will do whatever it takes to fulfill their sworn duty. Yet for many of these brave men and women, the battle of good versus evil means the ultimate sacrifice—laying down their lives in the unconditional fulfillment of their duty.
The death of an officer killed while on duty presents the most heartfelt crisis an agency can face. When an officer is struck down, the death sends shock waves reverberating throughout the department and the community he or she served. Law enforcement agencies make it the highest priority to solve the case and bring the murderers to justice. But it is not a perfect world, and sometimes, but not many, they are not successful.
What was first an unbearable loss of a brother or sister officer swells into a mountain of guilt and remorse when a killer avoids capture. Many in the law enforcement community experience survivor guilt, believing they had done something wrong or they could have done more. Some officers cry out, “This just couldn’t happen!” Many will suffer nightmares and flashbacks to the tragic event. The loss of a brother or sister officer is something that never leaves your soul.
Investigations of homicides of law enforcement officers are not unlike a roaring river, which can become a trickle as it passes through a dam. Clues in the murder of a police officer come thundering in by the hundreds the first few weeks and then become a dribble the following month. Front-page stories fade to the back of the paper and then are gone altogether. Rewards are posted, government officials cry out for justice and television stations run the story—for a time. Soon weeks turn to months, and before you know it, years have melted away. But there is one given that is the same in virtually all unsolved police cases—no matter how stale things get, the detectives investigating the case will never give up. Never. Even though many will promote, retire and die, there are others coming up through the ranks who will take over the reins of the investigation and keep fighting to identify the perpetrators.
This is one of the reasons for this book. By breathing new life into these unsolved homicides of police officers, justice may be served, and the perpetrators finally made to pay for their gutless acts. When I decided to research this subject, I was appalled to discover that there was no centralized database that listed the name of each officer killed in the line of duty and the disposition of the case. While the FBI does maintain records going back to the 1980s, no agency has a definitive listing of the names of these brave officers, their departments and the basic information about the cases since the beginning of policing in the United States. After two years of comprehensive research, I have been able to document the sacrifices of these officers and put them in one place—this book.
