From Kim Minugh:
Flags are flying half-staff across the country today in honor of more than 18,000 law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty in the country's history.
Today is National Peace Officers' Memorial Day - the highlight of National Police Week, which began Sunday. Last week, agencies in the Sacramento region and statewide honored their fallen officers leading up to this week's national activities, based in Washington, D.C.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy and Congress designated May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day. President Bill Clinton passed a crime bill in 1994 requiring that all flags be lowered on this day, according to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund.
This year's activities - including a candlelight vigil held Thursday night and a wreath-laying ceremony held this afternoon - highlight 133 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty nationwide in 2008, as well as 254 others who died in previous years but hadn't been officially recognized.
Among those names added this year are 18 from California, including: Sacramento County Sheriff's Deputy Larry Canfield, killed in a traffic accident Nov. 12; retired Deputy Paul DeRouen, who died March 29, 2008, from injuries sustained on duty 22 years earlier; California Highway Patrol Officer Joseph Sanders, a Galt native killed in Los Angeles County on Dec. 15; Yolo County Sheriff's Deputy Jose Antonio Diaz, shot to death June 16; and Sacramento police Officer George C. Chapman, killed April 27, 1858.
That brings to 18,661 the total number of officers who have died in the line of duty in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, and federal law enforcement and military police agencies.
Among the local officials in Washington for some of the ceremonies has been Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness. In an interview last week, McGinness said it is important for people in and out of the profession to pay tribute to the willingness of peace officers to give their life to protect their communities.
"That's a huge contribution that every law enforcement officer in the county makes, whether they're actually called upon to pay that individual sacrifice or not," he said. "By virtue of that oath ... and their duty, they express the willingness to make that sacrifice.
"We as a society have to value that. We have to."
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