The DC Traveler

Monument Monday - Honoring Police Officers Everywhere

by Jon on October 22nd, 2007

The first paid police officials were hired to protect the citizens of Boston in 1712.   

In 1789, President George Washington appointed the first 13 U.S. Marshals, after Congress approved the first Federal law enforcement positions.

The year 1792 brought the first record of a law enforcement officer getting killed in the line of duty.  New York Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith, was killed by John Ryer after responding to a report of a disturbance in a tavern, in what is now the the South Bronx.

Ryer, a member of a prominent local farming and cattle-raising family, while drunk, shot the deputy using a flintlock pistol and then fled to Canada. After the Governor offered a $500 reward for Ryer’s capture, while working in the wilds of Quebec, Ryer was spotted. The authorities were called and he was arrested, extradited and jailed. He was later convicted and hanged for his offense.

Strangely, NYC Police’s 46th Precinct Bronx station house sits on Ryer Avenue, named after the same Ryer family. 

Some interesting police facts:

• In 1858, Chicago and Boston were the first U.S. cities to issue uniforms to their police officers.
• Five years later, Boston issued revolvers to its officers
• Over a three-year period, famed outlaw Billy the Kid, killed six law enforcement officers in New Mexico.
• In Los Angeles in 1910, Alice Stebbin Wells becomes the first female police officer with arrest powers.
• Just 6 years later, a jail matron in Ohio, Anna Hart, becomes the first female officer killed after being beaten to death during an escape from a county jail.
• More police in New York City have been killed on duty, (668) than in any other city.
• Of the 17,500 names listed on the memorial, 216 are female.
• Between 1932 and 1934, the notorious bank robber John Dillinger and crew, murdered ten officers during their crime spree. That total  is higher than during the riots at Attica State Prison in 1971 (7), the Oklahoma City bombing (4), and the Branch Davidian raid in Waco, TX (8). 
• Only the 9/11 attacks resulted in more police officer deaths from one incident - 72.
• In 2006, 145 officers were killed in the U.S.

The names of more than 17,500 federal, state and local law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty, are inscribed on the marble walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.  The names date back to Sheriff Isaac Smith.

The 3-acre park is a great place to unwind, and in the Spring, 14,000 blooming daffodils lining the pathways of remembrance make it a beautiful site.

A National Law Enforcement Museum is scheduled to open in 2011 at the same site.

National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial
E Street, NW between 4th & 5th Streets, on Judiciary Square
Washington, DC. (map it)

Dates and Times - Daily

Tickets - none required, free

Nearest Metro Subway Station - Judiciary Square, Red line

Parking - Metered street and paid garage parking is available in the area.

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