Buffalo Grove chief on National Police Week: Respect, Honor, Remember

The week of May 14 to May 20 marks the observation of National Police Week across the United States. It has been my privilege to participate in events surrounding these days of honor for the entirety of my 41-year career in law enforcement, and I hope to share a few thoughts about what this week means and why it is so important that we take time to both venerate and celebrate the people and the principles that this time represents.

When and Why

I have taken the liberty of borrowing a well-known tagline from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund in the title of this writing. It neatly encompasses the reasons behind this week's tradition of appreciation and commemoration. President John F. Kennedy proclaimed May 15 as National Peace Officer Memorial Day in 1962 and, in that same year, Congress passed a joint resolution establishing the full week as one of recognition for officers fallen in the line of duty and for the acknowledgment of those still walking the thin blue line.

National Police Week provides a common platform for the men and women of law enforcement to come together and to join with the community in paying homage to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. But perhaps just as importantly, it presents an opportunity for the public to consider both the people and the profession of policing as more than a badge, a gun or a police car.

To behold the memorial ceremonies, the Blue Mass, the solemnity of honor guards, the placing of wreaths, and ultimately the tributes paid to the families and survivors of fallen officers is a humbling experience. To pull back the curtain of grief and expose the raw and very real pain of a family touched by the worst aspect of this noble profession is a true privilege.

Pain and Pageantry

In my four decades as a law enforcement officer, I have had the misfortune of knowing men and women who have fallen in the line of duty. It is an experience that, while obviously dreadful and terrible, transcends itself as a single event. The police family is a special one, and with good reason. There are few comparable careers that bind you to your colleagues in such a deep and personal way, knowing they quite literally have your life in their hands at any given moment. The heartache and pain is shared across an agency and an institution in a way that we can only hope alleviates the unbearable burden of a mournful family.

Many of the touching events surrounding Police Week involve neighborhoods, communities, police headquarter tributes or other state and local observances. However, the memories and memorials demonstrated in Washington, D.C., through the work of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, the Concerns of Police Survivors organization and the Fraternal Order of Police are a sight to behold.

There are 21,183 names engraved on the memorial wall of officers who have died in the line of duty. Sadly, as the memorial grows every year, adding an average of 135 names to the granite wall annually, the enormity of the structure itself and the passion of the people behind it are overwhelming both visually and emotionally.

This month, 143 more names will be added for officers killed in 2016. To watch dignitaries and survivors walk together, through rows of mounted officers, past phalanxes of officers from across the globe standing at attention, to mount a stage adorned with American flags and representations of the thin blue line in front of the U.S. Capitol would challenge the most stoic among us. I have witnessed crowds of thousands, as far as the eye can see, standing in the pouring rain to pay tribute during the roll call reading of the names of fallen officers. I have watched the tears flow and the mending of hearts through hands and hugs in a convergence of pride, honor, dignity, and sorrow. I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to attend these events in our nation's capital or in honor of your local police agency to do so.

At a ceremony prior to the Buffalo Grove village board meeting last Monday, people assembled at the flagpoles to raise a police "thin blue line" flag in honor of National Police Week. In addition, officers handed out blue light bulbs for residents to place in their porch lights for the month of May to further honor and show support for fallen officers.

Perception and paths forward

This year's observance of National Police Week is especially poignant considering the level of violence and, often, vitriol directed at police in recent months. According to the national memorial fund, total law enforcement fatalities as of this writing are up 29 percent from this time last year, and assaults on officers are also on the rise, as are incidences of unprovoked ambush attacks as we saw in Dallas, Miami, Orlando and Phoenix.

These events do not occur in a vacuum, however. Rising tensions among neighborhoods and the officers who patrol them are at the heart of conversations that need to be opened, encouraged and promoted in all of our communities. Distrust of the police, concerns regarding transparency, discussions about legitimacy and the reflection of a community's identity in its police department are all topics that should be at the forefront of law enforcement leaders' agendas every day.

Every community is different and the challenges are far-ranging, but the simple fact is we need to continue to work together to build authentic bridges of respect and tolerance, to build a common language of trust and confidence and to find paths that emphasize our unity and not our division. Outreach and dialogue are two-way streets; it is critical for citizens to get involved with their police departments.

Sign up for a citizen police academy, go on a ride-along with an officer, tour the 911 center, attend the Coffee with a Cop at your local diner, attend community meetings, ask questions, listen to answers, and above all understand that law enforcement officers are people, too. As so aptly stated by Sir Robert Peel of London's Metropolitan Police in 1829, "To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interest of community welfare."

The men and women who wear the badge want to go home safe at the end of every shift. They likely did not join the ranks of policing to get rich. They entered a profession completely dedicated to public service - one that demands weekends and holidays and often bearing witness to the worst in human deeds and actions. I will close this commentary as I began it, with a citation inscribed at the memorial wall in Washington, D.C., that reminds me consistently of the oath of honor I took as a Military Police Officer in the U.S. Army in 1977, "The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are as bold as a lion."

Let us be bold, together.

• Steven R. Casstevens is Buffalo Grove chief of police. He is immediate past president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and a vice president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.