PPOA Executive Director
wquint@ppoa.com
Each year in the April issue of Star & Shield magazine, PPOA pays tribute to our California peace officers who made the ultimate sacrifice in the previous year and who will be memorialized in May at local, state and national ceremonies.
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. The proclamation was established by a joint resolution of Congress in 1962.
One fallen peace officer from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will have his name engraved on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial wall and added to the California and Los Angeles County memorial monuments in May: Deputy Alfredo “Freddy” Flores (EOW: April 20, 2024).
On October 10, 2023, Deputy Flores was training with a fellow deputy inside the mobile shooting range at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic when an equipment malfunction ignited a fire. Both deputies suffered severe burns before being rescued by fellow deputies and transported to the hospital. Deputy Flores passed away after a valiant six-month fight to recover from his line-of-duty injuries.
Deputy Flores graduated from LASD Academy Class #327 and served the residents of Los Angeles County for 22 years. His assignments included the North County Correctional Facility, Operation Safe Jails, Altadena Station and, most recently, the Sylmar Juvenile Court at Court Services West Bureau.
Deputy Flores is survived by his wife, children, parents and sister.
Since 1977, California has memorialized our state’s fallen heroes by conducting the California Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremonies at our State Capitol during the month of May. The annual Los Angeles County Memorial Ceremony is also held in May. It is my hope that you attend at least one of the following memorial ceremonies to publicly commit that our fallen officers and their surviving families left behind will never be forgotten:
- May 4 and 5: California Peace Officers’ Memorial Candlelight Vigil and Enrollment Ceremonies, Sacramento
- May 13 and 15: National Law Enforcement Officers’ Candlelight Vigil and Peace Officers’ Memorial Ceremony, Washington, D.C.
- May 21: Los Angeles County Peace Officers Memorial Ceremony, Biscailuz Regional Training Center
In 2024, 147 officers nationwide died in the line of duty, representing a 25% increase compared to the 118 officers who died in the line of duty in 2023. The leading cause of these line-of-duty deaths was gunfire-related fatalities (52), which is a 13% increase from 46 fatalities in 2023.
In 2024, three peace officers in California died in the line of duty. In addition to Deputy Flores’ line-of duty death, two officers died in the line of duty from traffic-related incidents.
Deputy Alfredo Flores
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department
EOW: April 20, 2024
Officer Matthew Bowen
Vacaville Police Department
EOW: July 11, 2024
Officer Austin Machitar
San Diego Police Department
EOW: August 26, 2024
Additionally, two California peace officers from the recent and distant past are being honored and enrolled this May.
Officer Chad E. Swanson
Manhattan Beach Police Department
EOW: October 4, 2023
Officer Terry D. Long
El Monte Police Department
EOW: August 22, 2004
I encourage you to visit the California Peace Officers’ Memorial Foundation (CPOMF) website, camemorial.org, for additional information on our five fallen heroes who will be enrolled this May in Sacramento. Also, on May 4, PPOA’s website, as well as CPOMF’s, will have a digital copy of the annual In the Line of Duty memorial magazine, which details this year’s enrollment of our three peace officers from 2024 and our two peace officers from the recent and distant past.
This May, let us remember the brave men and women who died in the line of duty safeguarding our communities in our state and across our great nation. May we never forget those five words etched with the names of 24,067 peace officers on the granite walls at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial: “In valor there is hope.”