The Annual Memorial to Fallen Officers Is a Near-Daily Ritual for Sheriff Rick Staly

When he took office as Flagler County Sheriff in January 2017, Rick Staly started a ritual. Every time a law enforcement officer’s life was lost in the line of duty, he’d write two cards: one to the agency that lost the officer, and one to the family of the fallen. 

The cards feature a sheriff’s star and a red rose through it, on the front flap, a sympathy message from the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office, and Staly’s signature. He is alerted to each new fallen officer through a database.




“Probably close to every three days, I’d get a notice of a law enforcement officer killed the line of duty,” Staly said in an interview today, elaborating on brief remarks he’d made to that effect at the annual Sheriff’s Office memorial for fallen officer in Bunnell Wednesday evening. 

Lt. Allen “Noochie” Credeur of the Rayne Police Department in Louisiana was the last officer lost so far this year, inadvertently killed May 5 by another officer’s bullet as police were searching for a suspect wanted in an attempted murder. Three days before, Special Deputy Sheriff Larry Henderson, Jr. of the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio when a man deliberately drove onto the sidewalk, struck and killed him. The driver was apparently seeking revenge after seeing his son shot and killed after fleeing in a stolen vehicle. A few days before that, it was Brandon Sikes, 31, shot and killed during a traffic stop on I-20 near Augusta. 

And so on, through 25 deaths so far this year, and 2,721 over the past 10. Staly is in his ninth year as sheriff.  

“I just thought that the men and women of the agency and the family should know that they did not die in vain, that they’re part of our law enforcement brotherhood across the country,” the sheriff said. “I just thought that they should hear from sheriffs, from police chiefs around the country about their loved one’s sacrifice.”

He never thought he’ be signing so many cards.

“With fondness, we recognize those who served before us. Some were colleagues, others were friends,” Sheriff’s Chaplain Dominic Scardino said as he opened last night’s memorial with an invocation. “We bless the memory of those who once stood with us, served alongside us, responded for the good of those who live around us, and who have now changed their earthly uniforms for eternal ones.” 




The memorial drew dozens of people and law enforcement officers, elected and other officials, a color guard and the Coastal Florida Police and Fire Pipes and Drums. One of the band’s drummers, J. David Walsh, a retired circuit judge who was Flagler County’s chief judge for several years, went unrecognized when officials in attendance were named. (Watch the ceremony here.) 

The memorial is part of National Police Week, started by President Kennedy by proclamation in 1962.

“While we here are specifically to honor our agency’s six fallen heroes, as well as the other fallen law enforcement officers with Flagler County ties,” Staly told the assembled, “we also pause to recognize the more than 24,000 law enforcement officers who have given their life, paid the ultimate sacrifice throughout our nation’s history. This is a staggering and sobering number that represents just how dangerous our profession is.” 

In the most solemn part of the ceremony, families of the local fallen pin a red rose on a star-shaped wreath and receive a blue rose as each officer was recognized in turn: Sheriff Perry Hall (1927), Deputy George “Son” Durrance (1927), Sheriff Homer Brooks (1965), Deputy Charles “Chuck” Sease (2003), Sergeant Francesco “Frankie” Celico (2011), Deputy First Class Paul Luciano (2021), Bunnell Police Department Sgt. Dominic Guida (2021), and FBI Special Agent Daniel Alfin (2021), whose father, former Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin, pinned the red rose. 




“Law enforcement officers take this job knowing there is a chance we might not come home at the end of the day,” Staly said. “But it is perhaps hardest on the ones who love us the most. Each of the six fallen heroes have mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, wives, husbands, children and countless others who bear the burden of their sacrifice. We acknowledge and thank the families, for their sacrifice. You are not alone in your grief, and we know the grief still lingers and always will.”

 Last year 165 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a website that tracks and memorializes every loss, including police dogs killed in the line of duty (21 last year, eight by gunfire). Forty-nine died by gunfire, the most frequent cause. Twenty-five died either by vehicular assault or from being struck by a car. Twenty-four died from 9/11 related illnesses, a category that has continued to claim dozens of lives a year long after the 2001 attacks. 

Eight law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in Florida, three of them by gunfire, three when they were struck by a vehicle. The Officer Down page does not include officers who take their own lives–a number that exceeds those who die in the line of duty, with at least 184 officers losing their life that way every year, according to a recent study and a May 8 New York Times investigation. 

“That is a big problem in law enforcement, just like it is in the military, and that is why I’ve been doing resiliency for the last three and four years,” Staly said in the interview,  “and bringing in different speakers to talk about resiliency and seeking help and things like that, because I don’t ever want to have a suicide in our agency. I may not be able to totally prevent it. But at least I will know that I’ve made every effort that we don’t have that. We have lots of programs for our employees.” 

The programs are discreet, confidential, and try to overcome the frequent fear among officers that they’d be perceived as weak if they seek help, or that they’d be found out through databases. Confidentiality ensures against either fear, Staly said.