Law enforcement officers are a brave breed of unique men and women. They know up-front the risks that are involved in their line of work, yet they choose to place their lives on the line every single time they put on their uniforms and walk out the door to go to work. Their journey through life often places them in situations seldom seem by the majority of the members of the communities in which they serve. More often than not they encounter the rude and the crude who make their living by taking from others.

Most of the time, what they take are material things that for the most part can be replaced. Sometimes they take that which can never be replaced. Sometimes they take that which can never be replaced, human life. Every 57 hours in the United States , a law enforcement officer's life is taken in the line of duty. Law enforcement officers take an oath of office in which they promise to protect and serve. Providing that protection and service to the community means they live "in the valley of the shadow of death." Chief McBride has often described the world that needs police as being made up of two types of people. The Takers and the Givers.

On the evening of September 29th, one of the Takers took one of the Givers. Our community will never be the same. Officer Delmar Warren Tooman gave his life in the line of duty, faithful to his promise to protect and serve. Warren was a living witness to what he believed. The poem, The Living Sermon, sums up Warren 's life nicely. Part of it reads, "I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. I'd rather one would walk with men than merely tell the way. The best of all the preachers are the ones who live their creeds. For to see good put in action is what every body needs. I may not understand the high advice you give, but there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live.

Warren had attached to his rear view mirror this verse of scripture. "And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory forever and ever Amen." (II Timothy 4:18)

Even though Delmar Warren Tooman, "lived and walked in the valley of the shadow of death" for him, death had no grip on him, for he had decided a long time ago who was going to shepherd his life. And if death were to come as we know it, he knew he would be ushered into God's heavenly kingdom.

Delmar Warren Tooman has left behind for us a great legacy of service to his community. In the changing world in which we find ourselves today, two thing remain constant: A commitment to service, and: a willingness to do whatever is necessary to keep the peace. Sometimes the price is high. We commit ourselves to upholding the same high tradition. Those famous lines from the poem, "In Flanders Fields" reads, "To you from failing hands we throw the torch: be yours to hold it high". That is our pledge to our brothers who have fallen and the generations that are yet to come. We can do nothing less.

Post-Script:

Do not grudge your brother his rest, he has at last become free, safe, and immortal, and ranges joyous through boundless heavens: He has left this low-lying region and has soared upwards to that place which receives in its happy bosom the souls set free from the chains of matter.

Your brother has not lost the light of day, but has obtained a more enduring light. He has not left us, but has gone on before.

-Seneca-