This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Salt Lake City Police Department, like other law enforcement agencies, is struggling to attract suitable recruits, especially from minority communities where tensions often run high between cops and people of color who at times feel targeted.
That is why Sunday's ceremony honoring fallen officers at the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial at the Capitol was poignant and inspiring.
This year's event, held to remember the slain Utah law enforcement officers whose names appear on the memorial, brought together two groups that could foster better police-minority relations in the future.
Salt Lake City Police Chief Michael Brown told me recently about the challenges in recruiting, especially among minorities. But one area with evident diversity is the department's Explorer program in which students between ages 14 and 20 take part in an education program designed to teach them how to be law enforcement officers in the future.
Of the 52 Explorers currently enrolled, half are Latino. There also are three African-Americans, two Asians, one Pacific Islander, one Native American.
Another hopeful trend: 28 of the Explorers are female.
Part of the young people's duties is to care for the memorial and take part in other activities fueling respect for the sacrifices that have been made by those defending our communities and the country.
The Explorers recently carried the ashes of 18 unclaimed soldiers killed in various wars from several cemeteries and mortuaries from around the Salt Lake Valley to be permanently laid to rest at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery near Camp Williams.
They get into the program through classes taught by Salt Lake City Detective Cody Lougy and hail from all the Salt Lake City area high schools.
"I wanted to be a police officer after I took the class," said Explorer Kaylee Ortega, 19, who first took the class when she was a student at West High."I plan to go into homicide [investigation]."
At Sunday's service, 14 new members of the department's Explorer Post 2471 received the Explorer Memorial Guardians pin from the children of three of the most recent officers killed in the line of duty.
Three children of slain lawmen — Meredith Barney, Ben Johnson and Shea Wride — awarded pins to the new Explorers at the rites that followed Sunday's 10th Annual Ride for Fallen Officers, which began Sunday morning in northern Utah County and ended at the Capitol.
Hundreds of motorcyclists participated in the event, which was sponsored by the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial Board and Timpanogos Harley-Davidson in Lindon.
Their fathers were Unified Police Department Officer Doug Barney, Draper Sgt. Derek Johnson and Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Cory Wride.
Johnson was killed in an ambush during Labor Day weekend 2013, when he pulled over his police cruiser to examine a car that was parked at an odd angle in Draper.
Wride was gunned down near Lehi in January 2014 during a police chase that tore through two Utah counties. Barney was shot and killed last January in Holladay.
"It warms my heart every time I come here," said Jack Barney, Doug Barney's 13-year-old son, noting his dad never missed the funeral of a fallen colleague. "I know my father wants me to be happy. He tried to always make me smile."
An estimated 7,000 bikers rode from Lindon to the memorial service this year, more than triple last year's 2,000.
"This shows that all the negativity toward police officers over the last year or so has solidified support for law enforcement," said Utah Highway Patrol Col. Mike Rapich. "We see more support now than ever."
And the diversity coming into law enforcements from young recruits in the Explorer program might make that support even stronger.