Monday, October 25, 2010

Yes, Airport and Hospital Police Are 'Real' Cops

In 1974, the FAA Police, which
later became the MWAA Police
was the first airport
agency to lose an officer
in the line of duty.
Last night I had the duty of picking my wife up from Dulles International Airport. After the second loop past the arrivals pickup area I stopped my car for a few minutes to wait for her and took the opportunity, while I was stopped in the "no waiting" area of course, to check my email and the latest correspondence from the ODMP contact form. I was amazed at the coincidence to see this question from an airport police officer in Ohio:
Do you consider airport or hospital police if they are killed in the line of duty?
No sooner had I finished reading the question then I was shooed away from the no waiting area by a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) PD police officer.

The answer to the above question is "yes." Any law enforcement officer in America who is killed in the line of duty is eligible to be included on the Officer Down Memorial Page. It doesn't matter if they work for a municipal, state, federal, or specialized agency: Airports, hospitals, harbors, railroads, etc. To the ODMP, a police officer is a police officer is a police officer. We make no distinction on a police officer's eligibility based on the type of agency they work for.

Like the PSOB program, Concerns of Police Survivors, the National Memorial, and other national organizations, the ODMP does have a criteria for inclusion that we adhere to when making determinations on when a potential line of duty death is eligible, but that mostly revolves around the circumstance of the death rather than the type of agency (with very few exceptions). To make a long story short, if a law enforcement officer has some sort of arrest authority and is killed/dies as a result of having that authority then he/she will probably be eligible to be included on the ODMP.

With that, I'd like to specifically honor those airport and hospital police officers who have been killed in the line of duty:

Airport Police Officers Killed in the Line of Duty

Private William Edward Connor United States Department of Transportation - Federal Aviation Administration Police, US 1974-01-12
Officer George Neal Ramsburg Maryland Aviation Administration Police Department, MD 1974-02-22
Police Officer Garland L. Garrison Will Rogers Airport Police Department, OK 1979-09-19
Officer James Douglas Bossen Indianapolis International Airport Police Department, IN 1982-02-05
Officer William Moss Houston Airport Police Department, TX 1983-09-12
Officer Kenneth Stanley Baldwin Okaloosa County Airport Police Department, FL 1987-09-11
Officer Michael Capparelli Chicago Department of Aviation Police, IL 1992-03-27
Corporal Richard David Barreda Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport Police Department, TX 1997-02-14
Officer John Michael Richardson Nashville International Airport Police, TN 1999-04-29
Chief of Safety John Ross Juneau Southwest Georgia Regional Airport Police Department, GA 2003-05-02
Sergeant Michael Allen Scarbrough Wayne County Airport Authority Police Department, MI 2005-02-09
Police Officer Tommy Edward Scott Los Angeles World Airports Police Department, CA 2005-04-29

Hospital Police Officers Killed in the Line of Duty

Quarantine Guard Ira Trueman Hill United States Department of Health and Human Services - Public Health Service, US 1919-06-01
Police Officer Marvin C. Bland United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police, US 1985-09-06
Police Officer Mark S. Decker United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police, US 1986-01-31
Police Officer Leonard B. Wilcox United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police, US 1986-01-31
Police Officer Ronald Hearn United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police, US 1988-07-25
Officer Harry Cantave New York City Health and Hospital Police Department, NY 1990-08-22
Police Officer Garry A. Ross United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police, US 1990-12-24
Captain James Rodriguez New York City Health and Hospital Police Department, NY 1992-03-19
Police Officer Horst Harold Woods United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police, US 1996-01-10
Sergeant James C. Low New York City Health and Hospital Police Department, NY 1999-02-01
Police Officer Jose Oscar Rodriguez-Reyes United States Department of Veterans Affairs Police, US 2002-04-24
Officer Monte Ruby CoxHealth Department of Public Safety, MO 2008-08-06

Did we fail to list any officers in the lists above? If so, fill out the comment form below with their names and agencies.