Statistics vary somewhat but the number of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty since the United States was founded in 1776 is now approaching 25,000. The Officer Down Memorial Page provides a figure of 24,872 since 1776; The National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum website begins counting in 1786 and states that 24,412 law enforcement officers had died in the line of duty.
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation which designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date falls as Police Week. The Memorial Service began in 1982 as a gathering in Senate Park of approximately 120 survivors and supporters of law enforcement. Decades later, the event, more commonly known as National Police Week, has grown to a series of events which attracts thousands of survivors and law enforcement officers to our Nation's Capital each year since, except for a few years during the COVID-19 pandemic.
National Police Week is co-sponsored by the National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum, the Fraternal Order of Police and Auxiliary (FOP) and Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS). The 2025 Police Week runs May 6 - May 16 in Washington, DC.
Among the fallen law enforcement officers who lived and/or died in Beaufort County who are honored on the monument are:
BENJAMIN PAUL CARDEN
5-E: 20
End of Watch: January 6, 1925
Beaufort County, South Carolina, Sheriff's Department
ELMO FRAZIER LANGFORD
49-W: 20
End of Watch: June 6, 1927
Beaufort County, South Carolina, Sheriff's Department
RICHARD V WOODS
22-W: 18
End of Watch: August 19, 1969
South Carolina Highway Patrol
BRUCE KENNETH SMALLS
5-W: 2
End of Watch: September 27, 1985
South Carolina Highway Patrol
4-E: 10
End of Watch: April 17, 1990
Beaufort County, South Carolina, Sheriff's Department
Walter Dennis wrote a poem "Tribute to Deputy Russell Bell (Killed in the line of duty.) for inclusion in his self-published pamphlet of poems and short stories, Street People:
I didn't know him
Nor did many of the thousands
Who came that day to say goodbye.
But we felt his presence in his widow's eyes
Who must carry on and continue on with life.
We could feel his love in his children's faces
Who were left to grow up
With only memories of a great man.
We could see his compassion in the deep furrows
Of his mother's face who had lost
All that was precious and all that was good.
We could feel his strength
Etched in the faces of his friends
Who had been touched by his short life.
And in his peers, we could feel his dignity and his courage
Standing proudly beside him
But we all thank him for what he did.
For each of us he gave his life
So we might live a better one.
We will honor your memory and forever remember your name.
For you are the man who gave so much
To those of us you hardly knew.
End of Watch: January 8, 2002
Beaufort County, South Carolina, Sheriff's Department
DANA LYLE TATE SR
13-E: 23
End of Watch: January 8, 2002
Beaufort County, South Carolina, Sheriff's Department
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