Campaign shows appreciation for law enforcement

Few people realize the dangers a law enforcement officer faces daily. The Committee Against Assaults on Law Enforcement Officers was founded in 1981 in Miami-Dade County after I witnessed an assault on a North Miami officer. I testified as a witness and saw firsthand how the officer was made to feel that he had to learn that being assaulted was part of his job. He had to learn to accept it, and the offenders usually got off with little or no punishment.

During 17 years, I attended more than 30 law enforcement officers' funerals.

When I moved to Hernando County in 1999 I witnessed more respect for law enforcement. As I brought my desire to create a support group here in Brooksville, I realized that we needed something here to show our citizens that we do respect our law enforcement.

Our committee was formed and we continue to follow battery on officers. We came up with the idea that we needed to do something to include our entire community. We started the Law Enforcement Appreciation Luncheon held in the month of May, which is designated as Law Enforcement Awareness Month; May 15 is Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week of May 15 as Law Enforcement Appreciation week.

We are now in our eighth year of having this luncheon, and support from businesses and citizens alike has grown each year. Our group supports the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, Brooksville Police Department, Florida Highway Patrol and Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Each year this luncheon severs 300-plus officers, city, state and county officials as well as state and government officials. We get many donations of food, gift certificates and door prizes. We even honor the police K-9 units and mounted patrols with toys, dog biscuits for the canines and apples and carrots for the horses.

This year the "Blue Light Campaign" was formed and has been widely accepted by our county commission and city council, and we have received endorsement by the Brooksville Business Alliance.

We are requesting businesses to display a blue light in their window and a blue light in their parking lot. We would like homeowners and residents to display a blue light in their window or somewhere on their property. This will be during Law Enforcement Awareness Month in May.

Our goal is to bring the Blue Light Campaign all over the United States in the next few years.

As our mission reads: "To insure that each law enforcement officer has their day in court and are treated in a polite and courteous manner and that they know this committee will stand with them against the criminal."