L.A. officials unveil street signs to commemorate police deaths
Los Angeles officials unveiled the first of hundreds of street signs Thursday that will be installed at locations where police officers were killed in the line of duty.
Since the department’s inception, 207 officers have made the “ultimate sacrifice,” said L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti at Thursday’s event marking Police Memorial Week.
The 207 signs will be put up at the intersections near where the officers were killed, and for those killed outside the city, they will be installed near the officer’s police station, the downtown administration building or the Elysian Park Academy grounds.
“As we drive through the city, we don’t just curse the traffic or worry about being late,” Garcetti said, “but we pause and remember.”
The first sign went up earlier this week at 2nd and Main streets downtown. It commemorates Officer Edward Wilhoit, who was killed in 1924.
Each sign will have a number that the public will be able to use on a memorial website to learn more about how the officer died. People will also be able to leave video tributes, letters, poems and photographs to commemorate the officer’s sacrifice. The website has not yet launched.
The signs will be created and installed over the next six months.
“They’re no longer with us in the flesh, but they will never leave us,” LAPD Police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday.
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