Police Week 2018: IACLEA Honors Fallen Heroes

New Video Honors 45 Officers Killed in the Line of Duty

Forty-five campus public safety officers have been killed in the line of duty since 1923, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) and IACLEA. They are among the more than 21,000 officers the nation honors during National Police Week, May 13 – 19, 2018. In 2018, campus law enforcement lost two officers with the tragic deaths of Cpl. Monty Dale Platt, West Texas A&M, on August 8, 2017, and Officer Floyd East, Jr., Texas Tech University, October 9, 2017.

IACLEA released a video to honor all 45 campus public safety officers. The video depicts a somber ceremony at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial at which the IACLEA Board of Directors, Executive Director Sue Riseling, and NLEOMF President and CEO Craig Floyd honored and thanked the fallen officers. The honor guard from member institution University of Maryland Department of Public Safety added pageantry to the ceremony, as five officers presented colors.

“As the President of IACLEA, in this annual National Police Week, I am proud that the Association remembers our fallen heroes,” said David Bousquet, IACLEA president and chief of police at Becker College.

“It is important that we recognize and honor those who gave their lives in service to and protection of others in their community. We honor them so their ultimate sacrifices will not have been in vain. It also is vital to demonstrate to the families of fallen officers that, as we remember their loved ones, we remember them.  The families of the fallen will always hold a place in the collective heart of law enforcement," said Bousquet.

As part of IACLEA’s recognition of the sacrifice campus public safety officers make, the Association is pressing to enact the Sean Collier Act, named for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) officer slain during the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombers. Because MIT is a private institution, Collier’s family was not eligible for the federal line-of-duty death benefits that families of public institution officers receive. That act seeks to correct that injustice. Learn more.

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