County to light up blue for law enforcement

The Board of Commissioners met for their weekly, public meeting and began by hearing from Sheriff Joe Myers about a resolution that would light Ohio blue in support of law enforcement.

“What this is, is every year we’ve done the Light Up Ohio Blue campaign,” Myers said. “It’s for all our law enforcement personnel. Two years ago we added nurses to that because the nurses weren’t recognized. So before you is our resolution for this year for Light Up Ohio Blue.”

Commissioner Dustin Corder read the official resolution. “The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office has joined the Light Ohio Blue campaign. Light Ohio Blue first began as Light Central Ohio Blue in 2016. After joining this campaign six years ago, Harrison County has proven that this has been a successful campaign. The purpose of Light Ohio Blue is to honor and pay respects to law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty, as well as honor those that are currently serving as sworn and civilian staff. The annual campaign brings together communities of all sizes in concert with their law enforcement to honor Ohio’s fallen law enforcement officers and to support currently serving law enforcement officers across the Buckeye State. Since the first known line-of-duty death in 1791, more than 24,000 U.S. law enforcement officers have made the ultimate sacrifice. According to Ohio COPS (Concerns of Police Survivors), Ohio ranks 5th in the nation for the number of police officers killed in the line of duty. Sadly, last year Ohio lost three law enforcement officers in the line of duty and their names have been added to the 836 names on the Ohio Peace Officers Memorial in London at the Ohio Peace Officers Training Academy. We can never remove the grief and trauma that these many families and agencies experience, but we can vow to never forget the officers and their families’ extreme sacrifice to their communities and to our state and nation. Please encourage your family, friends and colleagues to join Light Ohio Blue (LOB) by lighting an exterior lights blue to show support for our currently serving law enforcement and to honor our fallen. 2024 will be the campaign’s ninth year and continued growth reaching every corner of the Buckeye State. On our website, www.LightOhioBlue.org, you can access photos and videos of previous years as well as the toolkit is a good resource of images. This is in coordination with National Peace Officers Week on May 15. Most importantly, tell your friends, family and neighbors what you are doing, and post a picture for social media using #LightOhioBlue2024.”

Myers added, “We started seeing [more blue lights] last year, it really makes us feel good. With everything going on in the country today with law enforcement, it makes us feel proud.”

Commissioner Paul Coffland commented, “We are certainly proud to support all our officers and we appreciate the work that they do.”