Hundreds of police and peace officers gathered at the legislature grounds on Sunday to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice.
In Alberta there are 100 names on the list of officers who died protecting the public since 1876.
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Memorials like the one in Edmonton have been held across the country on the last Sunday in September since it was officially started in 1998. The first ever memorial held in the 1970s honoured 14 officers who died in the line of duty. That number is now more than 880.
“There have been so many sacrifices over the years,” Alberta Sheriffs Branch Deputy Chief Bob Andrews said. “We’ve had so many officers that have given their lives.”
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Andrews has been working in law enforcement for almost 40 years. He has come to the memorial for many of those years and it has always meant a lot, but he said, it means even more now.
“My son is a police officer, and I have a different worry than I did in my service, with my son as a member of the Edmonton Police Service,” Andrews said. “So it’s special.”
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The most recent death in the line of duty in Alberta was on June 8, 2015 when Edmonton Const. Daniel Woodall was killed.