Display a Blue Light to Honor Fallen Officers

HARRISBURG—Pennsylvania residents are asked to display a blue light in their home or office windows during the holiday season to remember fallen law enforcement officers and their survivors, State Police Commissioner Frank Noonan announced recently.

"Project Blue Light" was developed by C.O.P.S., or Concerns of Police Survivors, a nonprofit organization based in Missouri that represents more than 15,000 families of officers killed in the line of duty, according to a State Police press release.

In 1988, Dolly Craig wrote to C.O.P.S. that she would be putting blue candles in her living room window that holiday season to honor her son-in-law, Daniel Gleason, who was killed in the line of duty while serving with the Philadelphia Police Department, according to a State Police press release.

"The color blue is symbolic of peace," Noonan said in the release. "By displaying blue lights, you will show that you support America’s law enforcement officers. Any police officer passing by it on some dark, cold winter’s night will be warmed by the kindness it implies."

According to Noonan, 93 members of the Pennsylvania State Police have been killed in the line of duty since the department’s founding in 1905. The most recent death occurred on Jan. 13, 2010, when Trooper Paul G. Richey was shot and killed while responding to a domestic incident in Venango County. Richey, who was 40 years old, is survived by his widow and two children.

Additional information about C.O.P.S. is available at www.nationalcops.org.