Teaching Young Officers Sacred Traditions Associated with a Law Enforcement Funeral.
Understanding traditional law enforcement funeral customs should be a part of every police officer's training. Unfortunately new officers are rarely knowledgeable about how our law enforcement traditions came about or why we perform them.
They should know about the casket flag and 13-step flag fold, Taps, and how the three-volley salute began.
They should know about bagpipers, the riderless horse, and the helicopter missing-man formation fly over.
They should know about the last radio call.
They should understand the symbolic gesture of officers passing by the casket and placing white gloves or flowers on the casket.
They should know that rendering a hand salute is part of an honorable ritual important to these ceremonies.
If new officers don't understand these rituals, the rituals themselves will eventually pass away. We believe they are worth preserving.
How to get started.
Below we offer some suggestions for "when" to train.
When?
Timing is important. There are some opportunities for making this subject matter seem less awkward.
We suggest providing this training during National Police Week.
Another fitting time is on the anniversary date of a department's officer being killed.
One obvious time is following the line of duty death of a member of your agency.
A LOD death at a nearby agency – close enough where representatives will be sent to the services – is also an appropriate time.
Roll Call Training
Most departments kick off a shift like they did on “Hill Street Blues” with roll call. It’s a good time for introducing educational content that is not a formal part of an officer’s training.
The agency’s chaplain or honor guard supervisor is the ideal person to conduct the training. We won’t go into a historical explanation of the typical honors ceremonies and customs.
There are resources available that provide this information. Your department should come up with a comprehensive handout that includes local traditions.
(Suggested starting place)
[ChaplainUSA’s Online learning resources is one way to leverage technology and make roll call more effective for members of your department.
Work our education videos into your roll call.]
The Family Must Understand Our Traditions as Well
We cannot overlook the surviving family of a deceased officer either.
We typically tell them that there will be an honors ceremony.
We need to do more. We need to give each family member a comprehensive explanation of the ceremonies and their traditional roots. They need to understand what each element represents and its significance to members of the law enforcement community.
Families and officers who attend a line-of-duty funeral may forget the words they hear but they never forget the ceremonies. Our objective is to insure they understand them as well.
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This post is drawn from the work of John Cooley. John Cooley draws on the wisdom accumulated over his 30 years with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he coordinated over 80 police funeral and memorial services. A complete list of John’s videos can be found at t
https://www.facebook.com/pg/ChaplainUSAorg/videos/
