Message from Chief Krantz on National Police Week

Sunday, May 9th, 2021, marks the beginning of National Police Week. This annual week pays special tribute and recognition to law enforcement officers in the United States who have lost their lives in service to their communities while providing safety and protection to others. 

This week is also a tribute to recognize the courageous work the women and men in law enforcement are engaged in, hand in hand with their communities, to provide security, protection, and service to keep everyone safe. Officers are working right now in our communities, facing unknown challenges and situations that put their lives at risk while intending to keep everyone safe. Law enforcement officers’ families and children are kept in suspense every day while their loved ones are at work, hoping for the best of the day and hoping their loved ones come home uninjured, all the while preparing to do it again the next day.

In 2014, President Barack Obama said it best when he wrote in the Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week Proclamation the following;

“Each year, America sets aside a week to salute the men and women who do the difficult, dangerous and often thankless work of safeguarding our communities.  Our Nation’s peace officers embody the very idea of citizenship – that along with our rights come responsibilities, both to ourselves and to others.  During Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, we celebrate those who protect and serve us every minute of every day, and we honor the courageous officers who devoted themselves so fully to others that in the process they laid down their lives.

“As we mourn the fallen, let us also remember how they lived. With unflinching commitment, they defended our schools and businesses. They guarded prisons; patrolled borders; and kept us safe at home, on the road, and as we went about our lives. To their families, we owe an unpayable debt. And to the men and women who carry their mission forward, we owe our unyielding support.

“Our Nation has an obligation to ensure that as police officers face untold risks in the line of duty, we are doing whatever we can to protect them. This means providing all necessary resources so they can get the job done, hiring new officers where they are needed most, and investing in training to prepare those on the front lines for potentially deadly situations. It also means making reforms to curb senseless epidemics of violence that threaten law enforcement officers and haunt the neighborhoods they serve.

“Just as police officers never let down their guard, we must never let slide our gratitude. We should extend our thanks not only in times of tragedy, but for every tragedy averted – every accident avoided because a patrol officer took a drunk driver off the streets, every child made safer because a criminal was brought to justice, every life saved because police officers raced to the scene. In other words, we must show our gratitude every day.” (President Barack Obama, Proclamation – Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week 2014, May 15th, 2014)

In Bend, our police officers have a special relationship with our community that we value tremendously. We have been able to work together to consistently provide the high-quality service that our community expects and deserves while we continue to build trust within the community. 

May 9th through May 14th is a special week for recognizing our police officers’ oath of service to be our community guardians. I want to take the opportunity to personally and publicly thank our Bend police officers and the other nearly 1 million law enforcement officers in the United States who are doing the right thing every day, for their work and for the risk they and their families take on. I also want to recognize the tremendous amount of support given and trust placed in our officers by our community. No day goes past where I do not receive a note or word from a community member who voices their support and appreciation for our officers’ work. 

The police officer job has changed tremendously over the last decade; the expectation of the 21st Century police officer is tremendously demanding. We need our officers to be experts in crime investigations, officer safety, and tactical performance. We expect them to be communication and de-escalation experts, mental health experts, crowd management experts, social service providers, and competent practitioners of ever and quickly-changing laws and court cases. We ask them to be compassionate, empathetic, understanding, emotionally intelligent, and supportive. We ask of all this while wanting them to be unaffected by this work while being the consistent guardians of our communities. In Bend, our officers continue to answer this demand and continue to grow and improve our service. This is the service expectation, and it is this commitment to service that we honor in Police Week 2021. 

This year for the 2021 Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, the Bend Police Department will not be hosting any live events due to the pandemic restrictions. Interested community members are encouraged to participate in the virtual events hosted by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, particularly the Virtual Candlelight Vigil that will be live-streamed on Thursday, May 13th, 2021, at 8 PM (Eastern Time).  More information can be found here: https://nleomf.org/programs-events/national-police-week

Line of Duty Deaths of U.S. Law Enforcement officers *last 10 years (www.nleomf.org/facts-figures/officer-deaths-by-year)

• 2010 – 171
• 2011 – 186
• 2012 – 144
• 2013 – 130
• 2014 – 157
• 2015 – 164
• 2017 – 184
• 2018 – 183
• 2019 – 139
• 2020 – 295

Respect, Honor, Remember.  

With respect and appreciation, 

Chief Mike Krantz

Bend Police Department