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SALT LAKE CITY — Two new names of fallen officers were added to the list Thursday as police officers, family, friends and community members gathered at the state Capitol to commemorate the 149 state law enforcement officers who have died serving in the line of duty since 1857.
"President Ronald Reagan said, 'Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid,'" Draper Police Lt. Patrick Evans said at the annual Utah Police Memorial Service. "Thankfully, we have the brave men and women who wear a badge and face evil and danger. Unfortunately, they don't always win."
Evans, who also serves as the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial's president, mentioned to the crowd gathered Thursday that he is grateful there were no officer fatalities in 2023. The most recent Utah law enforcement officer to be killed was Ogden officer Nate Lyday who was fatally shot while investigating a domestic dispute in 2020, according to utahsfallen.org.
Most of the ceremony was spent memorializing the lives and service of the two Utah law enforcement officers who received a plaque to be placed among other plaques commemorating fallen Utah officers on the Utah Law Enforcement Memorial — Provo officer Trenton Halladay, who died in 2006, and Utah County sheriff's deputy James Hand, who died in 1931.
"I realized that I've gotten the pleasure of knowing several of the men and women on this wall and I know their personalities and I still remember them well, and knowing theirs and Trent's, I know that they'd be tight," said Draper Police Chief Rich Ferguson, taking the podium to speak about Halladay and the kind of person and officer he was. "I miss his laugh."
Halladay served with the Provo Police Department for 10 years and was a key member of the Utah County Sheriff's Major Crimes Task Force, a multi-jurisdictional team of officers from 18 agencies tasked with targeting and destroying criminal organizations.
According to Ferguson, Halladay was instrumental in identifying and locating meth labs in Utah during the mid-2000s. Ferguson, who investigated meth labs alongside him, said Halladay quickly volunteered to be certified in the taking down of meth labs after the DEA became overwhelmed with the amount of meth labs they were discovering at the time.
"During briefings after a lab, we would joke about the quality of the lab we had just investigated because our throats were still burning three or four days later from the chemicals we had ingested," Ferguson said, illuminating the ugly reality of busting a meth lab. "That's how we qualified what a good lab must've been was by how bad our throats burned."
According to Ferguson, Halladay investigated hundreds of meth labs over his career and put numerous dangerous criminals in prison while understanding that not everyone caught up in the drug world is a bad person. Unfortunately, Halladay passed away in 2006 after a six-month-long fight with cancer caused by exposure to the carcinogens produced in the meth labs that he investigated.
"Trent was a naturally good police officer, it was just in his blood," Ferguson said, and in 2022 Halladay's name was added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. "It took 16 years for his light to be validated and recognized as an in-the-line-of-duty death."
Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith spoke to the crowd to commemorate the memory of Hand, who died in 1931 after getting into an accident while driving to work on a sheriff's office motorcycle and after only serving as a deputy for approximately 10 months. During those 10 months, it was evident that Hand made a positive impact on the community he served.
"Deputy Hand made the local papers several times for his exceptional work as a deputy," Smith said. Among his notable arrests included the arrest of an escaped convict from the Arizona State Prison and the arrest of a man found in possession of 56 bottles of "home brew."
The memorialization of the two officers being added to the memorial during the ceremony was followed by a musical number, "Homeward Bound," performed by Kate Allan, before the plaques of the two officers were placed on the memorial among the names of their fellow fallen officers.
A moment of silence followed the placing of the plaques and a rendition of "Amazing Grace" played on the bagpipes by Sandy police officer Ian Williams. A three-round volley was fired by Provo police officers and a rendition of taps was performed by Marcia Conover-Harris and Casey Harris.
To close the memorial service, Elder K. Bruce Boucher of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints led those gathered in a benediction where he prayed for the safekeeping and well-being of police officers and their families.
