ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) – One local police department is asking residents to put their support for law enforcement on display this holiday season.
Ashwaubenon Public Safety is encouraging people to put one blue light in their home’s front window to support officers who currently serve and those who have paid the ultimate price.
Chief Eric Dunning notes “to this date, 118 officers have died in the line of duty (in 2017). Two of those 118 officers are from the state of Wisconsin.”
Folks are also urged to place strings of blue lights outside their houses.
Dunning says blue was selected since it is a symbolic color of peace.
He claims displaying the lights sends two messages: supporting America’s peacekeepers and hoping for a year of peace in 2018.
While officers sometimes make mention of the ‘small’ tokens of appreciation they receive from members of the public, Dunning says they really are a big deal to the men and women in blue.
“Out in public, at the mall or something like that, and someone takes the time, reaches their hand out, and says ‘thank you for what you do,’ it says a lot.”
He says the support is especially important in today’s climate.
“To be out patrolling the streets and neighborhoods and seeing that blue light out there, it gives law enforcement that support and says ‘hey, we do care.’ We know that the community that we live in really supports the efforts and what we do here.”
Dunning notes blue lights will also be place at the department and in various locations throughout the Ashwaubenon community, in conjunction with an effort by Concerns of Police Survivors.
