Weld Sheriff’s Office hosts Fallen Officer Memorial Ceremony at Bittersweet Park ...Saudi Arabia

Several dozen people gathered Thursday evening at Bittersweet Park to honor the 165 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in 2024.

This year’s ceremony, unlike those in year’s past, didn’t feature a keynote speaker. Weld Sheriff’s Office Captain Matt Turner, who emceed the ceremony, said that was because they wanted to keep the focus on the 165 officers.

“This event isn’t about anybody on stage. It’s not about anyone here,” Turner said. “It’s about the names that we’re about to read off. We want to reserve the greatest honor for them.”

After that, 13 representatives — mostly captains, but some other agency leadership — read the names of those who were killed. Of the 165, just two were from Colorado: patrol officer Dale Coski of Denver and police officer Evan Dunn of Golden.

Barring unusual circumstances — such as inclement weather or a national pandemic — the event has been held annually on National Police Week since the memorial was constructed in 2012.

The idea for the memorial came to be in 2011, a year after Weld Deputy Sam Brownlee was shot and killed when a gang member got control of Brownlee’s firearm and shot him three times from close range. Brownlee was just the second Weld deputy killed in the line of duty — and the first since 1940, when Deputy Earl Bucher was shot outside a beet shack southwest of Johnstown.

Greeley police have also lost two officers in the line of duty: patrolman Lee S. Whitman in 1935 when a prisoner smuggled a gun into the then-Greeley jail and patrolman Jameson Longworth in 1976 when a domestic violence suspect shot him in the neck, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page

The 165 officers killed in 2024 is 29 more than 2023 (136), but less than 2022 (245) and significantly less than 2021 (725) or 2020 (461). COVID-19 played a large part in the inflated numbers, as it was responsible for 287 officer deaths in 2020 and 504 in 2021.

So far in 2025, there have been 25 on-duty officer deaths — on pace to be a 67% decrease from last year.

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