MEMORIAL NEWS AND EVENTS

Recognition sought for Sacramento officer’s 1858 killing

Brown said he felt compelled to make sure the Police Department did now what it should have done then.

"We want to give proper honor for a citizen who came forward and became a police officer and in the course of his duties, gave his life," he said.

Not having known Chapman, Brown nonetheless feels a kinship. If nothing else, he recognizes that officers – including himself – regularly respond to burglary calls the same as Chapman did.

"Unfortunately for him," Brown says, "it was tragic."

Requests for posthumous recognitions are becoming increasingly common with the advent of the Internet and a growing interest in genealogical research, said Kevin Morison, spokesman for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

In May of this year, the organization added 358 names to the memorial in Washington, D.C. – 177 of whom died prior to 2007.

"There's a passion out there among people to ensure that officers who were killed decades, if not centuries, ago are recognized," Morison said. "If you died in the line of duty, you deserve to be recognized."

Brown said he hopes Chapman makes it all the way to the Washington memorial. But if nothing else, Chapman will take his place among his fallen brothers and sisters in the Sacramento Police and Sheriff's Memorial in North Sacramento – and in the chronicles of Sacramento Police Department history.

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