Recognizing Our Law Enforcement Partners During National Police Week
By: Angela French and Barbara Gleason, Office of Public Affairs, Diplomatic Security Service, U.S. Department of State.
Every year during National Police Week, tens of thousands of law enforcement officers from around the world travel to Washington, D.C., to participate in events honoring the brave men and women who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) — through the Diplomatic Security Special Agents Association — participates in the annual 5k run and lays wreaths at several Diplomatic Security facilities, as well as at the National Law Enforcement Memorial Wall, to honor the fallen.
DSS collaborates with local, state, and federal law enforcement colleagues in our field and resident offices located in 29 cities throughout the country to investigate and combat visa and passport fraud and to protect visiting dignitaries. When a partner officer falls in the line of duty anywhere in the country, it is felt deeply within the DSS community. Most recently, we joined our DSS Chicago Field Office colleagues in mourning the death of Chicago Police Commander Paul Bauer, who was killed after responding to a radio call regarding a suspect running from the police.
“Commander Bauer caught up with the suspect; a struggle ensued; and he was shot six times by the suspect who was an aggravated felon and who was wearing a bullet proof vest at the time of the shooting,” said DSS Supervisory Special Agent Martin G. O’Toole, who worked closely with Commander Bauer and his fellow officers in the 18th District in downtown Chicago. “The 18th District has many foreign consulates and their collaboration is essential to DSS in protecting these consulates.”
Commander Bauer’s death is only one example of the close kinship between DSS and our fellow law enforcement officers not only here in the United States but also overseas. As the federal law enforcement agency tasked with securing our country’s diplomatic facilities around the world, the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) has experienced the loss of colleagues who gave their lives in the service of diplomatic security. The names of 144 of these DSS special agents, diplomatic couriers, Marine Security Guards and other military personnel, security contractors, and host nation security personnel are engraved on the Diplomatic Security Memorial at DSS headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
Among those honored on the DS Memorial are four DSS Special Agents:
- Ronald Albert Lariviere and Daniel Emmett O’Connor, who were both killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland, December 21, 1988;
- Edward Joseph Seitz, who died in a rocket attack in Baghdad, Iraq, October 24, 2004; and
- Stephen Eric Sullivan, who was killed in a terrorist attack on a motorcade in Mosul, Iraq, September 19, 2005.
Thirty-three foreign national law enforcement officers, assigned to U.S. mission security operations by their host countries overseas, also lost their lives in the line of duty and are remembered on the DS Memorial.
This National Police Week, DSS honors the memory of our fallen colleagues and partners, and thanks them, their families, and their communities for their service and sacrifice.
Editor’s Note: This entry originally appeared on DipNote, the U.S. Department of State’s official blog.
