Brackenridge chief's name to be added to fallen officers memorial in Washington, D.C.

The process has begun to add Brackenridge police Chief Justin McIntire’s name and badge number to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

McIntire was killed Jan. 2 while on duty in Brackenridge pursuing a Duquesne man wanted for weapons-related parole violations and eluding police.

The national memorial in Washington’s Judiciary Square honors more than 22,000 police officers killed in the line of duty since 1786.

The names of new officers are added to the memorial each spring during National Police Week and commemorated with a candlelight vigil at the National Mall on May 13.

“The reason we exist is to determine the line-of-duty deaths and honor the men and women who put their lives on the line and lost their lives through no fault of their own,” said Marcia Ferranto, CEO of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.

McIntire already has been added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund’s online list of fallen heroes.

The memorial lists the names of other recent fallen officers from the Alle-Kiski Valley, including Lower Burrell K-9 Officer Derek Kotecki and New Kensington Officer Brian Shaw, who were added in 2012 and 2018, respectively.

The memorial fund will research McIntire’s case as well as other police deaths in 2023 for their inclusion in the national memorial monument in the spring of 2024, Ferranto said. The fund will engrave the names of those officers who died in 2023 on the memorial’s wall in April 2024.

The nonprofit conducts a stringent review of police officers’ deaths to report trends in the number of police who died in the line of duty and the circumstances of their deaths. For the preliminary 2022 fatality report, Ferranto said she is not seeing an increase in firearm deaths. The report will be released later this month. However, police fatalities involving firearms are significantly higher this decade compared with the previous decade, she said.

Ferranto blames the higher firearm deaths of police on the lack of leadership and support from government officials.

“The fact that they have demonized law enforcement over the last few years has created an unsafe environment for our community and officers,” she said.

Firearm-related fatalities claimed the lives of 62 police officers in 2021, a 38% increase compared to the 45 officers killed in firearm-related incidents in 2020, according to the memorial fund. In Pennsylvania, the memorial fund reported, 15 officers were killed in the line of duty in 2021 and five in 2022.

Included in the 62 firearm fatalities in 2021, the memorial fund reported 19 officers were ambushed. Other officers who died in firearm fatalities were killed while investigating suspicious activities, attempting an arrest, responding to domestic disturbances, conducting traffic stops and drug investigations, responding to burglary or robbery calls, and other situations.

In 2021, the memorial fund recorded the highest number of police line-of-duty fatalities since the 1930s. Last year, the fund reported 458 police officers died in the line of duty nationally in 2021, an increase of 55% over 295 deaths in 2020. The spike was driven primarily by covid-19 deaths and increases in traffic fatalities and firearm ambushes, according to the memorial fund’s analysis.

The memorial fund reported 417 male and 41 female officers killed in the line of duty in 2021. The averages for a fallen officer were 48 years old, 17 years of experience and, if a parent, two children.

To learn more about the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, visit nleomf.org.

The memorial fund offers the app “the badge,” which contains information about all of the officers listed on the national memorial. App users can leave memorial messages for a fallen officer that will remain in perpetuity.