The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, in conjunction with the Chattanooga Police Department, hosted the 2018 Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony to honor local deputies and police officers who were killed in the line of duty and their surviving family members.
The program took place at the Law Enforcement Memorial located at 600 Market St. The key note speaker was retired U.S. Secret Service Agent Mike Pearson. Agent Pearson is also a former Chattanooga police officer.
On average, one law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty in the United States every 61 hours. Since the first known line-of-duty death in 1791, more than 20,000 U.S. law enforcement officers have died in this manner.
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, 135 law enforcement personnel were killed in the line of duty in 2017 and 51 have been killed in 2018.
Source: Ham HCSO