On the recordMay 12, 2010
As many of you know, this week is Law Enforcement Memorial Week. It's a time when all of us should stop and recognize and realize what our law enforcement family does for us each and every day. Those Capitol Hill Police that are around us here in this building, outside these doors, the Washington, D.C., police officers who protect us to and from our place of work and to our homes and other places that we travel, we have a safe community as a result of men and women wanting to put themselves in harm's way and sometimes sacrificing their lives. I was one of those for 33 years. I am proud to say that. As a sheriff's deputy in 1972, finally as the sheriff before coming here to Congress, I am proud to be a part of the law enforcement family. We are brothers and sisters. And being a police officer... means that we are men and women together as a family and a team, putting our lives on the line for people in this Nation every day. In this year, 126 police officers were killed in the line of duty.
