Indiana police officers are gathering Monday to celebrate not only the survivors among them who have been involved in traumatic incidents, but something else: the fact no Indiana police officers were killed in the line of duty in 2015.
It is the first time that number has been zero in 30 years.
Officers will commence their annual Cops Cycling for Survivors Ride at 8:30 a.m., when Gov. Mike Pence and his wife will join the group for a departure ceremony in front of the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.
The cyclists will begin their ride around 9 a.m. after Carolyn Dudley and Jennifer Martin-Luskey, both law enforcement survivors, deliver key note speeches.
Pence and his wife will join the cyclists for their first leg of the journey, according to the ISP release.
This is the 15th year of the ride, according to a press release from the Indiana State Police. An officer with the Indiana State Police, Lt. Gary Dudley, initially launched the event as a way to support law enforcement survivors.
This year also marks the 10-year anniversary of when both Dudley and Deputy Chief Gary Martin of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department were killed participating in the yearly ride. They both died Aug. 22, 2006, in a bicycle crash.
Dudley and Martin were killed when a large box truck rear-ended a support truck, which drove the support truck into the cyclists.
According to the Cops Cycling for Survivors website, several participants there that day were determined to keep the event going as the years went on.
Participating cyclists will include active officers, retired officers, law enforcement survivors, law enforcement family members and friends, according to the release. The riders will complete a 1,000-mile route around the perimeter of Indiana, raising awareness for the state’s law enforcement throughout the 13-day ride.
The journey is expected to go through several Hoosier towns: Indianapolis, Richmond, Bluffton, Angola, Mishawaka, Merrillville, Kentland, Terre Haute, Princeton, Huntingburg, Jeffersonville, Madison and Bloomington, according to the release.
Any funds generated by the Cops Cycling for Survivors Foundation, Inc. bike ride will be put toward perpetuating the memories of officers killed in the line of duty and helping their families and co-workers, according to the release.
In the past, money has also been put toward foundations, camps, scholarships, the Indiana Chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors and Project Blue Light at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.
The ride will start with a route toward Richmond, Indiana, and is slated to conclude at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
Interested parties can track the officers’ ride through the Cops Cycling for Survivors Foundation Facebook page.
Anicka Slachta
