Fallen officers from over the years remembered in Salt Lake City
May 14, 2025, 7:00 PM | Updated: May 15, 2025, 2:50 pm
Chairs with the portraits of Salt Lake City police officers who died in the line of duty during a ceremony to honor their lives and sacrifice, at the Public Safety Building in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Brice Tucker/Deseret News)
(Brice Tucker/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Each year in the month of May law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty are remembered during National Police Week. On Wednesday, Salt Lake City remembered 25 such officers in a ceremony at the Public Safety Building.
“Today, we honor those that we’ve lost in the line of duty,” said Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall during the ceremony. “The officers lived lives of service. They stood for something bigger than themselves.”
Members of the Salt Lake City Police Department’s SWAT Team wait to fire a three-round volley while Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd gives closing remarks at a ceremony to honor the lives of the 25 police officers who have died in the line of duty throughout the Salt Lake City Police Department’s history, at the Public Safety Building in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (Brice Tucker/Deseret News)
This tradition of recognizing fallen officers is not new. May 15 was proclaimed National Peace Officers Memorial Day by President Kennedy in 1962. National Police Week was created by Congress in that same year.
No officer deaths in Salt Lake City since 2003
The mayor recognized the day and week despite there having been no officer deaths in Utah’s capital city since 2003.
“I am reluctant to say it out of the superstition in me, but we’re fortunate here in Salt Lake City to have not lost an officer in the line of duty since 2003,” Mendenhall said.
However, the community of Santaquin lost a police officer in the line of duty when Sgt. Bill Hooser was hit and killed by a semitruck driver on May 5, 2024.
“We know that safety is fragile every day,” Mendenhall said. “Nearby communities in Utah haven’t been so lucky, and we felt the ripple of those tragedies within our own department and across our cities.”
“Reminders of courage”
The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund reported that in 2025, 28 officers died while on duty.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said these officers are a reminder of the courage we need in our lives.
“Think about these men who have lost their lives, and the impact they have made on all of us,” he said. “They represent the highest ideal, sacrificing for the greater good. Their sacrifice makes us better.”
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