PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Hattiesburg, Miss., Police Officers Benjamin Deen and Liquori Tate were shot and killed during a traffic stop on Saturday night.

 

They are the most recent of more than 20,000 law enforcement officers who have died or were killed while on duty. 

 

While Mississippi is far from Pittsfield, the Berkshires are not immune to loss.

 

Five officers related to Pittsfield have paid the "ultimate sacrifice": Capt. Michael Leonard, in 1898; Jailer James Fuller, 1901; Secret Service Operative William Craig, 1902; Officer Leo Sullivan, 1956; and Officer Timothy Shepard, 1988.

 

All of them were killed while working in or for the city. 

 

Last year, 127 officers died while on duty; in 2015, so far 44 have succumbed for various reasons — from illness to accidents to shootings.

 

"Police officers are prepared to lay down their lives every day," said Police Chief Michael Wynn, on Monday during the annual ceremony to honor those law enforcement officers.

 

Wynn said the ceremony is also a reminder that it can, and has, happened in Pittsfield.

 

He added that with all of the new technology and equipment that have advanced the job, it "still comes down to the individual officers putting themselves in the line of duty."

 

Meanwhile, a national conversation has been boiling over regarding policing actions.

 

The conduct of officers in some cases has led to riots and the president calling on departments to "do some soul searching." There have been accusations of excessive force that has led to civilian deaths and some have been charged with crimes for their conduct, such as in the case in Baltimore, where six officers are facing murder charges.

 

It is not easy to be a police officer with that conversation going on, said Wynn, and acts of misconduct gives a wrong impression of the entire profession. 

 

"One police officer commits an act of misconduct and it impacts all of us," the chief said, in a way that other professions aren't. There are only a small percentage of incidents of officer misconduct but those get all of the attention, he said.

 

It is less than 1 percent of contacts officers have in a given day involve police misconduct, Wynn said, and the good work they do is being overshadowed by the rare occasions of misconduct.

 

Chief Michael Wynn said the small percentage of incidents of misconduct get all of the attention.

"There are a lot of police officers doing good work and they don't get recognized," Wynn said.

 

It is those officers who "run toward the sound of gunfire" with a purpose of protecting the public, to be the "guardians of civilization," that the city honored on Monday.

 

"I think it certainly is the kind of thing a community should do. It is a wonderful thing to recognize the good people we have working in public safety," Mayor Daniel Bianchi said. 

 

"I think this is important every year regardless of the national circumstances ... . At any moment a public safety officer can lose his life."

 

Monday's ceremony featured the Pittsfield Police Department Honor Guard raising a flag to half staff outside of the station; an invocation by the Rev. Russell Moody; poems from Det. Kim Bertelli-Hunt and PPD Officers Wives Group member Allison Klink; roll call and echo of the officers killed in the city; the playing of taps by Ray Kinsella and the playing of "Amazing Grace" on bagpipes by Mary Brinton. The benediction was given by the Rev. John Salatino. 

 

National Police Officer Memorial Day is on May 15; National Police Week was established in 1962 under President John F. Kennedy. In 1994, President Bill Clinton had the resolution amended to require all flags outside of government buildings be at half staff on May 15. Pittsfield holds its own ceremony every year to honor the occasion.