May 8, 2024 6:00 a.m.
A ceremony held Tuesday in Salem commemorated law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty in Oregon.
A release from the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training said hundreds gathered for the Oregon Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony to honor the state’s fallen officers and those they left behind.
The annual event is held at the Oregon Public Safety Academy, site of the Oregon Law Enforcement Memorial. Tuesday’s ceremony remembered two fallen officers whose names were recently added to the memorial: Sergeant Jared Miller of the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, end of watch December 9th, 2021, and Reserve Corporal Joseph Johnson of the Nyssa Police Department, end of watch April 15th, 2023.
Sergeant Miller fell ill in November 2021 while working as a shift sergeant at the Marion County Jail during an outbreak of COVID-19 at the facility. He died from complications of COVID-19 on December 8th, 2021. Miller had served with the Marion County Sheriff’s Office for 16 years. He is survived by his wife, father, sister, brother, and grandfather.
Reserve Corporal Johnson was shot and killed on April 15, 2023, while making a traffic stop in Nyssa. After being dispatched to a domestic incident, Johnson engaged in a short vehicle pursuit with the suspect, who stopped and opened fire on the officer while he was still in his patrol vehicle. Johnson succumbed to his injuries at the scene. He had served with the Nyssa Police Department for almost five years, and also served as a corrections officer with the Oregon Department of Corrections for 15 years. He is survived by his wife and two children.
The memorial bears the names of the 196 officers who have died in the line of duty since the 1860s. This includes law enforcement, corrections, and parole and probation officers from city, county, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies.
Oregon’s memorial ceremony is held ahead of National Police week events in Washington, D.C. so that family members and coworkers can attend both ceremonies. More than 23,000 officers who have died in the line of duty are honored on the national memorial.