[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 20 (Monday, May 18, 1998)]
[Pages 850-851]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7095--Peace Officers Memorial Day and Police Week, 1998

May 12, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    This week a grateful Nation pauses to honor the more than half a 
million dedicated law enforcement officers across our country who put 
their lives on the line each day to protect us. These courageous and 
dedicated men and women daily wage the timeless battle for right over 
wrong, peace over conflict, and the rule of law over anarchy.
    We ask a great deal of our Federal, State, and local police 
officers. We ask them to stand between us and the forces of violence and 
chaos. We ask them to protect our homes and property and to save our 
lives at the risk of their own. We ask them to patrol our highways and 
our borders, to keep our children safe from drug dealers and gang 
leaders, and to bring to justice the murderers, terrorists, rapists, and 
other criminals who prey on our society. We lean heavily on this thin 
blue line, and it never breaks.
    Last year, in carrying out their awesome responsibilities, 158 law 
enforcement officers lost their lives--and the lives of their families 
and friends were changed forever. After several years of decreased 
violence against our law enforcement community, we face the sobering 
reality that police officer fatalities rose 27 percent during 1997.
    As we honor these heroes--those who still live and work among us, 
and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our well-being--let 
us reaffirm our efforts to end the violence that has taken such a heavy 
toll on our Nation's law enforcement community. Let us work to ensure 
that America's police officers have the training, resources, manpower, 
and community support they need to carry out the crucial 
responsibilities with which we charge them. In this way we can best 
honor the service and sacrifice of the thousands of fallen police 
officers whose memory we honor and whose devotion to duty has earned our 
respect and lasting gratitude.
    By a joint resolution approved October 1, 1962 (76 Stat. 676), the 
Congress has authorized and requested the President to designate May 15 
of each year as ``Peace Officers Memorial Day'' and the week in which it 
falls as ``Police Week,'' and, by Public Law 103-322 (36 U.S.C. 175), 
has directed that the flag be flown at half-staff on Peace Officers 
Memorial Day.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, do hereby proclaim May 15, 1998, as Peace Officers 
Memorial Day and May 10 through

[[Page 851]]

May 16, 1998, as Police Week. I call upon the people of the United 
States to observe these occasions with appropriate ceremonies, programs, 
and activities. I also request the Governors of the United States and of 
the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as the appropriate officials of 
all units of government, to direct that the flag of the United States be 
flown at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day on all buildings, 
grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and all areas 
under its jurisdiction and control. I also invite all Americans to 
display the flag at half-staff from their homes on that day.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of 
May, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-eight, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., May 14, 1998]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on May 15.