We frequently get questions regarding Levels of Service or what honors to bestow for various funerals that Public Safety teams are called to perform. This can be a challenging discussion and we always encourage laying out policy and framework for these decisions before the emotions of a loss to your agency are involved. 

A Line of Duty Death (LODD) would see a number of honors, based on the family's wishes of course, but the difficulty typically arises with a Non-LODD. Losing an active member, or even a retiree, can present challenges for an agency when the desire to honor the dedicated service of the deceased begins to resemble the same honors that would typically be reserved for a member who dies in the Line of Duty. This is not to say that their dedicated service should not be acknowleded and celebrated, but honoring service must be different from when we honor sacrifice. Sacrifice in this case, meaning that the member's life was cut short becasue of the job, or a death in the line of duty.

There are plenty of options and opportunities to honor our fallen appropriately but it is imperative that agencies put in the effort to prepare for the worst before they are faced with it.