A Decade Of Service And Sacrifice

In the Line of Duty

Just three days after the nation celebrated the start of a new decade – indeed, a new century and millennium – Patrol Officer James Bryant of the Broxton (GA) Police Department was dispatched to a “routine” task: escort a property owner who was evicting a renter and removing his trailer from the property. But the tenant, a 55-year-old “hermit” named Willie Mitchell, had different ideas about this “routine” matter.

Officer James Bryant

Knowing the men were on their way, Mitchell hid a deer rifle behind the trailer. As the pair arrived, Mitchell grabbed the weapon and opened fire, striking Officer Bryant once in each arm and once in the head.

Staff Sgt. Clyde Merritt

Alerted to the shooting, Staff Sergeant Clyde “Tub” Merritt of the Coffee County (GA) Sheriff’s Office responded to assist. As he attempted to rescue his injured colleague, Mitchell began firing again, fatally striking Sergeant Merritt in the chest. Both officers would die before their killer was eventually surrounded and arrested by officers from several responding agencies.

Records maintained by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reveal that Sergeant Merritt and Officer Bryant were among the first of more than 1,600 U.S. law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty between 2000 through 2009. While that level of sacrifice is staggering, it is not unprecedented.

In fact, the last decade was among the safest in recent law enforcement history. An average of 162 officers a year died in the 2000s, compared with 160 a year in the 1990s, 190 in the 1980s, and 228 in the 1970s, which remains the deadliest decade for U.S. law enforcement.

Of course, the last decade also saw the deadliest single day in law enforcement history: September 11, 2001, when 72 officers died in the terrorist attacks on America. Thirty-seven of the officers killed that day were members of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department, giving that proud agency the unfortunate distinction of having suffered the most fatalities by a single law enforcement agency in one day.

Superintendent Fred Morrone

One of those heroes was the agency’s superintendent, Fred Morrone. After a distinguished 30-year career with the New Jersey State Police, he became head of the Port Authority Police Department in 1996. For five years he led a force of approximately 1,300 sworn members with jurisdiction over the area’s three major airports; tunnels and bridges that link New York and New Jersey; the Port Authority Bus Terminal; the PATH rail system; and a number of other facilities operated by the Port Authority.

Even as a chief law enforcement executive, Fred Morrone led the Port Authority Police Department the way he had always operated: from the front. That was never more evident than on 9/11.

When word reached him moments after terrorists flew a jetliner into the World Trade Center, Superintendent Morrone left his Jersey City (NJ) office and rushed through the Holland Tunnel to help lead the rescue effort. Arriving at Tower 1, he raced up the stairs to the Port Authority's Executive Offices on the 67th floor. Witnesses said he paused just long enough to reassure the people coming down that they would be safe.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) lost 23 members on 9/11 and 20 other officers throughout the decade. That total of 43 represented the most fatalities suffered by any single law enforcement agency during the 2000s.

The 2000s were the first decade in the history of our nation in which more officers died in traffic-related incidents than were killed by gunfire. Approximately 44 percent of the law enforcement fatalities during the decade involved traffic-related incidents: automobile, motorcycle and bicycle crashes, and officers struck and killed by other vehicles. Another 35 percent were firearms-related, and 21 percent involved other causes.

While the majority of these traffic-related deaths were the result of automobile crashes, an alarming number involved officers struck and killed by other automobiles while they were outside their law enforcement vehicles. Over the last decade, more than 150 officers died under these circumstances, with many of the deaths being preventable.

Trooper Calvin Taylor

For example, on October 3, 2001, Trooper Calvin Taylor of the North Carolina Highway Patrol had stopped to assist a motorist on the shoulder of I-40 west of Asheville. That’s when a tractor-trailer slammed into both vehicles, killing the female motorist and Trooper Taylor.

The senseless death of the 20-year law enforcement veteran prompted the North Carolina General Assembly to enact the state’s “Move Over” law the following year, and inspired a grassroots citizens campaign to publicize the statute, which requires motorists to slow down and, if possible, move over one lane of traffic when they see an emergency vehicle by the side of the road. As the decade ended, 47 states had enacted “Move Over” laws to help protect our public safety officers.

The average age of the officers killed during the past decade was 39 and the average length of law enforcement service was just over 11 years. Trimble County (KY) Deputy Jailer Howard Callis, 79, was the oldest officer to die in the line of duty.  He was killed in an automobile crash in December 2002 as he and another jailer were traveling to pick up a prisoner.  The youngest to die during the decade was Officer Erin Frasier of the U.S. Air Force Security Police. On March 13, 2006, at the age of 18, she was killed in an automobile crash while patrolling Edwards Air Force Base in California.

Officer Erin Frasier

Officer Frasier was one of 81 female law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty during the 2000s, the most of any decade. One of them was Skagit County (WA) Sheriff's Deputy Anne Jackson, described by a colleague as “the champion of the underdog.”

Deputy Anne Jackson

On the afternoon of September 2, 2008, Deputy Jackson responded to a trespassing complaint in the small northwest Washington town of Alger. When she did not respond to a radio status check, another deputy was sent to investigate. He found Deputy Jackson shot to death, one of six victims of a 28-year-old, mentally deranged killer who had recently served jail time for drug possession.

Among the onlookers at Deputy Jackson’s funeral was a homeless woman who had met the caring law enforcement professional only once. “I was homeless, and she pulled up in her patrol car, rolled down the window, and handed me five bucks. I'll never forget it.”