Bronze sculpture honors fallen officers
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Clarke Christensen, the president of the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial board of directors, presented the Church on May 8 with a bronze sculpture depicting the brave actions of a sheriff's deputy who would become the state's first fallen peace officer.
President Boyd K. Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve, accepted the 15-inch sculpture on behalf of the Church. The sculpture is a likeness of a heroic-sized sculpture found at the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial on the grounds of the Utah State Capitol.
The bronze captures the heroism of Rodney Badger, a Salt Lake sheriff's deputy who drowned while attempting to save a family stranded in Utah's Weber River on April 29, 1853.
President Packer dedicated the memorial on Sept. 6, 2008. The memorial honors Deputy Badger and the other 127 law officers who have died in the line of duty in Utah. The $1.3 million memorial was made possible by the fund-raising efforts of police officers and citizens. Counted among the fallen are several Church members.
In his dedicatory prayer, President Packer asked that the memorial be declared sacred ground. "That anyone who comes here hereafter feels something. They may not be able to explain what it is, but Thy spirit will linger here to touch them and to bless them because of what has transpired."
He also invoked blessings on the state of Utah that "Thy peace and power will be upon the peace officers of the state and their families and upon the population."
