Local Officers Remembered During National Police Week

(KNSI) – Police officers throughout the country remember officers killed in the line of duty during National Police Week. National Police Week pays special recognition to law enforcement officers who have lost their lives serving the public and protecting others. Residents are asked to remember the sacrifice of Stearns County Deputy Edwin Arendt, St. Joseph Police Officer Brian Klinefelter, and Cold Spring Police Officer Tom Decker.

On November 3rd, 1987, Deputy Arendt was killed when a driver lost control on a rain-soaked road and hit his squad car head-on. The crash happened on County Road 2 in Jacobs Praire. He was with the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office for 23 years. He’s survived by his seven children.

Officer Klinefelter was shot and killed on January 29th, 1996, while trying to arrest three liquor store robbery suspects. He was hit while walking to the suspects’ pickup truck just west of the intersection of County Road 133 on the south side of County Road 75. He was an officer for two years. He left behind a wife and 3-month-old daughter.

Officer Decker was shot and killed on November 29th, 2012, as he and his partner performed a welfare check on a man whose family believed he was suicidal. As Officer Decker exited his patrol car in an alley behind the apartment, he was ambushed and shot twice with a 20-gauge shotgun. Decker served with the Cold Spring Police Department for six years. He is survived by his wife and four children.

According to the Minnesota Law enforcement Memorial Association, 275 officers have been killed in the line of duty. The majority, 139, were killed in shootings.

Established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962, President Kennedy proclaimed May 15th as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the calendar week in which May 15th falls as National Police Week.

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