LAPD Goes to Washington for National Police Memorial Week
Press Release from the LAPD

Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Police Department has supported the National Police Officers Memorial since it was dedicated in 1991, by then President George H. W. Bush. May 15th is designated at National Police Officers Memorial Day, and the entire week is set aside as Police Memorial Week.

In addition to local ceremonies planned, LAPD officers will participate a number of ceremonies and fundraisers in Washington, D.C. The itinerary is listed at the end of this release.

Assistant Chief Sharon Papa will lead a group of about two dozen LAPD officers who will represent LAPD at the various ceremonies, including the commemoration of LAPD Officer Fabian Lizarraga, whose name will be inscribed on the memorial. Officer Lizarraga was the sole LAPD officer killed in the line of duty last year, February 20, 2004.

A separate contingent of LAPD officers, who are members of the Southern California Chapter of the Police Unity Tour, will arrive in Washington, D.C. on May 12, 2005, having ridden bicycles from New York City's Ground Zero to the National Memorial, some five hundred miles. The local chapters of the tour ride to raise money for the memorial. The leader of the Southern California Chapter of the Police Unity Tour is LAPD Officer Craig Winter, a Senior Lead Officer in Pacific Division. Of the chapter's 37 participants, 29 LAPD officers, as well as members of Burbank, Riverside, LA Unified Schools, Rialto police departments, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department have riders in the chapter. The first event in the capital will welcome the Police Unity Tour riders with a police motorcade escort.

The following LAPD officers will be available for interviews and comments at the events listed below:

Chief of Police William J. Bratton Assistant Chief Sharon Papa Lieutenant Don Schwartzer Officer Craig Winter Officer Sandra Escalante

ITINERARY (all dates and times are Eastern Daylight Savings time zone)

May 12, 2:00 PM - Welcome Police Unity Tour riders

May 13, 5:00 PM - Candlelight Vigil (includes families of fallen officers)

May 14, 8:00 AM - LAPD lays wreath at Tomb of the Unknowns

May 14, 6:00 PM - Emerald Society and Pipe and Band March

May 15, 7:30 AM - Reading of names of LAPD officers listed on the memorial

May 15, 10:00 AM - Arrival of Motorcade of Survivors

Facts Related To National Police Memeorial Week:

Fourteen police officers were killed in the line of duty from California in 2004. LAPD Officer Fabian Lizarraga was killed in the line of duty, February 20, 2004, while assigned to Newton Area. There are more than 870,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the USA, the highest number ever. Women make up 11.7 percent of the total. There were 1.4 million violent crimes in the US last year. Violent crime peaked at 4 million in 1993. It has declined 35% nationally since then. The first recorded law enforcement death in the US was in 1792. Since then, more than 16,500 officers have been killed. In the last 10 years, 1,649 officers have died in the line of duty, an average of 1 every 54 hours, or 164 per year. There were 153 officers killed in the line of duty in the US last year. On average, more than 57,000 officers are assaulted each year in the US, resulting in some 17,000 injuries. In 2004, in Los Angeles, 813 LAPD officers were assaulted. Thirty-two (32) of those officers were shot at, and one of them, Officer Lizarraga, was shot and killed. By comparison, 2370 persons were victims of gunfire assaults last year in Los Angeles.

http://www.lapdonline.org/press_releases/2005/05/nr05284.htm