Bicycle ride pays tribute to fallen police officers

Two local police officers will be among 24 from Indiana bicycling across the state to raise funds for families of fallen cops. \nThe Monroe County Board of Commissioners honored officers Monica Zahasky of the Bloomington Police Department and Greg Butler of the IU Police Department for their involvement in the Indiana Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) 1,050-mile bicycle ride. \nThe 13-day ride begins at the Law Enforcement Memorial in Indianapolis June 20 and tours around Indiana, visiting each final resting place of the fallen officers from 2004.\n"Here in Indiana we have what we call the thin blue line -- men and women in uniform keeping us safe," Butler said. "It's important when we do this bike ride that we keep their sacrifice in focus." \nThis year officers will be riding in honor of four Indiana officers who were killed in 2004: Capt. James Baugh of the Putnam County Sheriff's Department, Dep. Craig Blann of the Newton County Sheriff's Department, Officer Timothy "Jake" Laird of the Indianapolis Police Department and Officer James Davis of the Butler University Police Department. \nThe bicycle route hits towns all over Indiana -- including Terre Haute, Merrillville, Bluffton and Santa Claus -- and finishes at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis July 2.\n"We bike anywhere between 75 and 100 miles a day," Zahasky said. "You have to be physically and emotionally prepared."\nThis year will be Zahasky's fourth year riding for the cause. She has ridden twice from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C. She has personally raised about $20,000 for Indiana COPS.\nThe route makes stops in the hometowns of fallen officers where Zahasky said riders have the opportunity to meet surviving families. \n"It's more emotional to meet the families," Zahasky said. "We get to know the families and their stories and what happened."\nThe money raised by participating officers provides financial assistance and ongoing support to family members of fallen officers, needs for criminal trials as well as other business needs of the Indiana chapter of COPS.\nThe COPS bicycle ride motto, "We ride for those who died," remains the center of what the ride means to Zahasky and Butler.\n"The focus is not on this bike ride," Butler said. "It's on the officers who have died"