Vernon County honors fallen police officers

VIROQUA, Wis. (WEAU) - The Vernon County community gathered in Viroqua Tuesday morning to pay their respects to police officers lost in the line of duty.

National Peace Officers Day is observed each year on May 15, and the week in which that day falls is designated as National Police Week.

Vernon County Sheriff John Spears says the sheriff’s department’s annual memorial service recognizes those who have given their lives protecting the nation.

“In law enforcement, it’s family, and when you hear of a law enforcement officer in another community that has lost their life, it does hit home a little bit,” Spears expressed. “We know that that could be anybody here as well, so your heart goes out to the families.”

Spears adds the Vernon County ceremony is particularly meaningful due to a beloved former member of the department.

“Bobbie Dickson, we all knew Bobby, and I was a dispatcher the night he was killed,” Spears recalled. “He’d came into the office, had his half a cup of coffee, and then out the door he headed, and a short time later I received a 9-1-1 call that there was a severe crash, and an officer was involved.”

Dickson passed away in 1986 as a result of that accident, and is memorialized with two other fallen Vernon County officers in front of the sheriff’s department in Viroqua.

La Farge Fire Chief Phil Sittleburg spoke at Tuesday’s service, and implored the community to carry on the legacies of the three men who gave their lives serving Vernon County.

“Monuments of stone disappear over time, but there is a way we can construct a truly lasting memorial to them,” Sittleburg said. “We can carry on their work, we can follow their example of paying it forward, and in doing so, we can honor them each day, every day, and that way we can be the true, lasting memorial to them.”

National Peace Officers Day and National Police Week were both established in 1962.

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