Richter died May 22, 1975. He was one of 36 Montgomery County area officers remembered Friday as part of the county's annual Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony. Looking at the hundreds of officers who filed into the RiverScape Pavilion, Osborne was overcome with emotion as she recalled the dangers they each face every time they walk out the door.
"May God bless all the families still waiting for their loved ones to come home, and may God bless all the men and women who walk that thin blue line," she said, as the crowd jumped to their feet and erupted in applause.
A Montgomery County officer hasn't been killed in the line of duty since 2002, when Dayton police Officer Mary Beall died of complications from a shooting two years earlier.
While many officers fear gunfire, keynote speaker Bill Erfurth, a former city of Miami, Fla., officer and executive producer of the film "Heroes Behind the Badge," said too few men and women wear their bulletproof vests.
Even more startling, he said, is that traffic-related incidents are quickly becoming the leading cause of death for those who wear a badge. Of the 111 officers killed on-the-job across the country last year, 46 were in crashes, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
Some of these dangers can be minimized, he said, by officers remaining alert, wearing their vests and wearing their seat belts.
"Ohio ranks No. 6 of the 50 states in the United States for line of duty deaths," Erfurth said. "Do your part, make a difference, bring those numbers down."
In a job where "the normal is the unknown," speaker and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the sacrifice law enforcement officers make to keep their communities safe cannot be minimized.
"Today we remember the fallen, not just remembering how they died, but I also think it's important to remember how each and every one of them lived... and how they protected us," he said.
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