CINCINNATI — The annual Light Ohio Blue procession brought departments from across southwest Ohio together for a procession in honor of fallen officers and their families Thursday.
Dozens of police cars, SWAT vehicles and other emergency vehicles traveled from the Hamilton Sheriff's Office to the police memorial on Ezzard Charles Drive before a brief ceremony outside of TQL Stadium.
Light Ohio Blue founder Bill Swank said he created the event to spread support for fallen officers' families and those who still do the job despite the risk.
"It does make a difference," Swank said. "When we have events like this, it shows that the community supports them. We just lost an officer Saturday in Euclid, Ohio."
#UPDATE: Quite the spectacle downtown.
— Sean DeLancey (@SeanDeLanceyTV) May 17, 2024
This is the end of the procession moving into the space around TQL near the D1 HQ officer’s memorial.@WCPO #LightOhioBlue https://t.co/V1ieKJzSeS pic.twitter.com/nZbtc6gnTA
Swank said the procession in Cincinnati shows officers that the community has their back.
In a sense, the event is tailor-made for officers like Amberly Village's Brandon Gehring who was hit by another officer's car while trying to deploy stop sticks during a 2009 police chase.
"I woke up a couple weeks later," Gehring said.
Gehring said he was placed in a medically induced coma to allow his brain swelling to go down, and only got back on his feet and back into service with the help of organizations like The Shield.
"I would have been another name on that wall," Gehring said. "This is a really big time for law enforcement."
"That wall" refers to memorials for fallen officers like the one prominently displayed within the Greater Cincinnati Police Historical Society.
Retired police chief Gene Ferrara knows every name and just about every story behind the faces on the wall of dozens of fallen officers from the region going back more than a century.
He said events like Light Ohio Blue are crucial to ensure others know their stories too.
"When the public recognizes it, and expresses it, that just means so much to the guys that are on the job and the gals that are on the job," he said.
Ferrara said the simple act of recognizing sacrifice and risk could be enough to keep some people doing the job even knowing they too could have their name up on "the wall."
"'They know that was the job, they knew that before they joined.' Well, to me, that's what makes it special," said Ferrara. "We knew it, and we do it anyway."
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