BOSTON (AP) - The Boston Police Department held a ceremony to remember officers who died by suicide and unveiled plaques with each of their names.
The memorial at police headquarters remembers 13 officers who took their own lives in the past 25 years.
“The highest rate of death is by an officer’s own hands. Not from car chases, not from shootouts, but by their own hands,” Police Commissioner William Gross said at the ceremony Tuesday.
The Boston Police Foundation raised funds to pay for the memorial, which features badges with each officer’s name inscribed on them and an additional plaque that reads, “May there never be another.”
Family members and friends of the officers also attended the ceremony, holding white roses, The Boston Globe reported.
“It’s not only a recognition, a remembrance of fallen officers; it’s also a reminder to officers that might look at that wall and might be feeling a bit down themselves, that there is help a phone call away,” Mayor Marty Walsh said.
The memorial also includes the phone numbers for the Boston Police Department’s Peer Support Unit and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
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National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255.
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