Reflections on Police Week 2025

by Ron Brooks

I originally wrote this article and published it in the BBM Weekly in 2020 during the height of the covid pandemic lockdown. Since then, it has become a tradition to feature this remembrance each Police Week in our Weekly Report. Many of you have read this in previous years but I continue to publish it with a few minor updates because I feel strongly that we must always remember and honor the sacrifices of America’s law enforcement officers. I hope that rather than becoming repetitive, this remembrance helps you to reflect upon the nobility and importance of the law enforcement profession. While this is my story, each of you that have served, have your own stories of the fallen heroes that you have known. My goal is to remind each of us to remain committed to remembering these heroes and the stories of their service and sacrifice.

Ron Brooks; May 8, 2025

I recall vividly, April 6, 1970, when my Dad, California Highway Patrol Officer Austin Brooks told our family about the murder of four CHP colleagues during a car stop in Newhall, California. I could hear the pain in his voice and it was the first time that I really thought about the dangers that police officers face on a daily basis. I still think about the sacrifice of those young officers, James Pence, Roger Gore, Walt Frago and George Alleyn whose employment background investigation had been conducted by my Dad. Sadly, as I sat down to update this article last year, it was shortly after the murder of four heroes in Charlotte North Carolina who were gunned down as they attempted to arrest an armed and dangerous felon. Like the four CHP Officers in 1970, these officers, Sam Poloche, William Elliott, Joshua Eyer and Marshall Thomas made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their community. Like all those that have gone before them, the deaths of these heroes leave an irreparable void in the lives of their family and friends.

On October 15, 1991, President George Herbert Walker Bush spoke at the dedication of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington DC. While standing on that hallowed ground, where more than 24,412 law enforcement heroes are now memorialized, the President said; “They gave much and asked little, they deserve our remembrance. Here in America’s Capital, for as long as these walls stand, they will be remembered. Not for the way they died, but by how they lived.”

Each year, since the original dedication of our nation’s law enforcement memorial, thousands of law enforcement officers, surviving family members and grateful citizens have gathered in our Nation’s Capital during Police Week to honor those officers that have made the ultimate sacrifice and to offer thanks to the more than 780,000 law enforcement officers that go to work each day to serve and protect our communities.

I have attended the law enforcement memorial ceremonies almost every year since 1995. While I took strength and solace from the Candlelight Vigil at the National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial and the Memorial Services on the steps of the United States Capitol, I had begun to take those events for granted. That is, until a global pandemic prevented me from gathering with my fellow cops to remember and honor our sisters and brothers in blue. Not being able to join with so many others to recognize service and sacrifice left a hole in my heart. Being able to once again attend these services in person has meant so much to me and to police officers and survivors from across the country.

On May 8th, freedom loving people from around the globe, celebrate Victory in Europe, Day. On that date in 1945, the United States and its allies declared victory over evil – the defeat of Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, May 8th is significant in my life because it was on that date, in 1981 while serving as a Redwood City, California Police Detective, I was involved in a gunfight where my boss, mentor and friend, Detective Sergeant George Leon Garrett Jr. was shot and killed by a bank robber, and another great friend, Detective Bob Peele, was wounded.

That May morning started like any other workday. We were assigned to the narcotic enforcement unit and I had just finished making an undercover drug buy. We were in the parking lot of the police station getting ready to go to lunch when we monitored a radio call of a bank robbery in progress that was close to our location. Sergeant Garrett told us to saddle up and respond to that call. With George, duty always came first. Our team, George Garrett, Dale Switzer, Bob Peele and I raced to the bank. Within minutes we had encountered the armed robber, Raleigh Porche, a drug smuggler who had been returned to the United States from prison in Mexico in an exchange brokered by President Jimmy Carter. We later learned that Porche had been on a bank robbery spree to raise capital to go back into the drug smuggling business. Within seconds of our arrival at the bank, George Garrett was mortally wounded by Porche, and Bob Peele was also wounded. Bob would later retire because of his injuries. Porche was killed in the exchange of gunfire. At just 28 years old, I learned the tough lesson, life is fragile and police officers are not invincible.

At the time of his murder, George Garrett’s wife Kathy was pregnant with their first child. Nineteen days later, Kathy gave birth to Nicole, a beautiful baby girl. Nicole, now a beautiful woman, is a wife, mother, former schoolteacher, and a successful business professional who is married to a federal law enforcement officer. Her father would be very proud of Nicole, and I am too. Nicole went on to become very active in C.O.P.S. – Concerns of Police Survivors – and has attended National Law Enforcement Memorial events many times.

As I think back on George Garrett and a life cut far too short, I realize what a great role model he was. George was dedicated to his community and to being the best police officer possible. George was smart, funny, brave, fair, tough, and committed. His integrity was beyond reproach. He believed in the importance of serving, especially in drug enforcement which he felt posed a grave threat to the health and safety of our nation’s most precious resource, our young people. Had he lived, George Garrett would have thrived as a cop. He would have accomplished great things as a law enforcement leader and mentor. He would have remained a loving and dedicated husband to Kathy and a great father to Nicole. I think of George often and I am thankful for the short time I had to work with him. The lessons that I learned from Sergeant George Garrett have served me well throughout my career.

Since becoming a police officer in 1974, I have worked with or known more than twenty police officers killed in the line of duty. And I have known far too many cops that have suffered serious, often life-changing injuries while serving and protecting. As a career narcotic officer, several other friends including Rick Oules, Pat Dillon, Lupe Baker and Dale Switzer who was at that bank shooting with me, have died as a result of cancer from exposure to carcinogenic chemicals found at meth labs. Countless other friends and colleagues have taken their own life or succumbed to the ravages of mental illness as a result of PTSD from the cumulative stress of being on the front lines as they serve their communities and protect their fellow citizens. Stress resulting from facing mortal danger, seeing the ravages of life on the streets including child abuse, family violence, depravity, drug abuse, poverty and far too much death at every kind imaginable from accidents to suicide to murder. It was the murder of George Garrett and the death of other friends and colleagues that made me realize how important it is to remember their service and to tell the ongoing story of the sacrifice and commitment of America’s police officers.

On January 13, 1982, Air Florida flight 90 took off from Washington’s Reagan National Airport in freezing conditions. Due to icing, the aircraft crashed into the Potomac River at the 14th Street Bridge. There were initially six survivors in that icy water. A U.S. Park Police Helicopter arrived on scene and dropped a lifeline which was caught by one of the survivors, Arland Dean Williams Jr. Mr. Williams passed that line to a fellow survivor. In fact, three times, the line came to him, and he passed it on to fellow survivors. In all, he was credited with assisting five persons to survive that crash before being drug underwater by the sinking aircraft. Arland Williams sacrificed his life to save people that he didn’t even know. That is what police officers, firefighters and paramedics do each day. They run to danger while others are running away. They are willing to keep passing that lifeline, even if it means sacrificing their own life.

That commitment to duty and service, the unwavering willingness to face danger head-on while others run to safety, is on display vividly on the nightly news. We saw that disregard for personal safety on 9/11 at the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, during the horrific bombings at the Boston Marathon, in the response to the attacks at the County Center in San Bernardino, the ambush of police officers in Dallas and at the response to the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando. We also witnessed it during the pandemic when police officers donned face masks to face the invisible killer, COVID-19. But these well-publicized occurrences are not rare events. Scenes like those are repeated every day in towns and cities across America usually without fanfare or recognition.

America's streets are safer than most of the world and that is no accident. More than 780,000 local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement officers, ordinary men and women, from small towns and big cities across this great nation, keep us safe. These officers are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. Every day around the clock they leave for work, prepared to walk directly into harm’s way — so the citizens they are sworn to protect won’t have to. Carved into the wall at the entrance to the National Law Enforcement Memorial is a quote from Proverbs 28:1 that describes the importance of police officers in fighting evil and wrongdoing. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are as bold as a lion.”

My father, wife, daughter and son-in-law are cops and it was my honor to wear the badge for 38 years. Altogether, our family has protected and served our communities for a total of 130 years and counting.

The hope for safe communities requires strong advocacy by every citizen. The story must be told and repeated as often as possible: police officers matter and the dangerous and difficult work by law enforcement officers is worth the investment of precious tax dollars and the support of our elected and appointed leaders. That is why it is so important to support the efforts of the National Fraternal Order of Police which sponsors the annual Law Enforcement Memorial service event on the steps of the United States Capitol and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which built and maintains our nation’s Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum and hosts the annual Memorial Candlelight Vigil. We must support Concerns of Police Survivors – C.O.P.S. – which supports the survivors of the heroes who have given the final measure. It is important to work with them and all of the other great law enforcement associations to ensure that we never forget the heroes that have made the ultimate sacrifice, or the survivors they have left behind. We must increase our commitment to the officers that make up that Thin Blue Line - officers who each day stand between good and evil – and who protect each of us, without reservation, even during life’s most dangerous events.

On August 31st 1983 Officer Kenneth Wrede of the West Covina California Police Department was involved in a violent altercation in an attempt to arrest Michael Anthony Jackson, a suspect under the influence of PCP who was causing a disturbance in the area that Officer Wrede was partoling. That suspect was able to rip Officer Wrede’s shotgun from its locked rack in his patrol car. He shot Officer Wrede who sucummed to that wound.

At the conclusion of the murder trial of Michael Anthony Jackson, Los Angeles County prosecutor Darren Levine made his closing argument to the jury. In that statement he said: “….my belief personally, there is no more honorable job when it's done right, when it's done ethically, when it's done to preserve our way of life. There is no more honorable job than being a peace officer. And as you get dressed what do you do. You put on a uniform. You put on a badge. But before you put on your shirt what do you have to do in this world. An officer has to stop and put on a Kevlar vest, a bulletproof vest. Is that a reminder of what your day may be like out there? And then you put on your duty belt. And then on your duty belt you have semi automatic firearm. And you have extra rounds of ammunition and you have two pairs of handcuffs. And you have Mace and you have a spot for your radio. And then you turn to the person you love, whoever that person is and you say goodbye, let's get a puppy. And you go out and you do your job and you run into people that don't play by the same rules we all play by. You run into predators and you have sworn, you've give an oath to protect society. And you go out there with the best training you have. You go out there with good intentions. And you ran into a victim who tells you there's a problem.” That is the life of every police officer in America. That was the life of West Covina Police Officer Kenneth Wrede. And now we need to remember him and the other 24,411 names engraved in granite on the National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial Wall.

There is a quote that I am particularly fond of by former Secretary of Education and later Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy William J. Bennett in an address that he made at the United States Naval Academy. Secretary Bennett said. “Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always, even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for?” I know that from the time of our nation’s first police officers until as far as we can see into the future, America’s law enforcement officers will live up to Secretary Bennett’s question, “What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for?”

During Police Week 2025 – a time of remembrance and reflection – and every day that we remain free and protected, please keep America’s police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other first responders in your thoughts and prayers. May God bless each of them and their families and may God bless the United States of America.