Dougherty County law enforcement community remembers fallen officers

By Alan Mauldin

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ALBANY – Law enforcement agencies in Dougherty County remembered their fallen officers who died in the line of duty during the annual Peace Officers Memorial Day with a solemn ceremony on Thursday.

President John F. Kennedy in 1962 signed a proclamation designating May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day, which falls during National Police Week each year.

Expanding on the John 15:13 Bible verse of a prior speaker, Albany State University President Robert Scott urged the audience not to remember the fallen in terms of their ultimate sacrifice but also in the way that they lived their lives during the ceremony held at the Albany Municipal Auditorium.

“To lay down your life for one’s city, to lay down one’s life for one’s nation for complete strangers we may never meet more than one time is a greater, a greater kind of love,” he said. “We are here to celebrate lives of uncommon courage, lives of uncommon commitment, lives of uncommon sacrifice and lives of (an) uncommon kind of greater love.

“They were lives that were lived, lives that were important and lives that were given in a greater kind of love. They believed their lives could make a difference in someone else’s worst moments. They were daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, family and friends, and they were our neighbors. They were lives filled with the same hope that each of us carries every day.”

The question for the day, Scott said, was not only how the fallen officers are remembered but how people respond to their stories and sacrifice and how they choose to interact with others.

“We can choose to act responsibly over creating indifference,” he said. “We can choose to care … not only in moments like today but in the individual interactions we have every day. We will continue in the greater love.”

During the ceremony, representatives of the various law enforcement agencies placed a flower on the shields of their agency, including the Albany Police Department, Dougherty County Police Department, Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office, Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany Police Department and Southwest Georgia Regional Airport Police Department.

The ceremony also included the playing of “Amazing Grace” and a “last call” made live on the air of the 911 system.

“We are here today to honor the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our community,” Dougherty County Police Chief Kenneth Johnson said. “Their courage and dedication will never be forgotten.”