Salt Lake City Police Department honors 25 officers killed in the line of duty

SALT LAKE CITY – No matter how much time has passed, Bill Farley can still remember the day like it was yesterday.

“It’s been 73 years. I was 16,” he said. “I was at South High School football practice.”

It was 1951 when his father, Salt Lake City Police Sgt. Owen T. Farley, was shot and killed by a robbery suspect.

Another officer came to the soccer field to tell Farley and pick him up.

“I jumped in his car and we drove towards the hospital. And on the way to the hospital I heard over the radio that my father had died,” Farley said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Owen Farley and twenty-four other Salt Lake City police officers killed in the line of duty were honored and remembered at a ceremony at police headquarters.

“As a police department, we want to ensure that the legacies of our fallen officers continue and that their stories resonate with future officers and generations to come,” said Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown.

As each officer’s name was read, a red rose with the officer’s picture was placed on the empty seat. The ceremony, held during National Police Week, featured a choir, a man playing the bagpipes and even a gun salute.

Time may heal the pain, but the department wanted to make sure she didn’t forget.

“We owe a great debt of gratitude to the families of our fallen officers,” Brown said. “A police officer’s courage is determined not only by their actions, but also by the indelible mark they leave on our city.”

Farley said he was grateful the department hadn’t forgotten. He’s also glad the department invited him and his wife, Mary Farley, to the ceremony.

Bill and Mary Farley at a gathering honoring Bill Farley’s father, who was killed in the line of duty with the Salt Lake Police Department in 1951. (Stuart Johnson, KSL TV)

“I’m so grateful that they’re doing this,” he said.

Bill Farley said he still remembers kissing his father goodbye as he dropped him off at football practice that tragic day.

Not even 73 years can take this memory away from us.

“What a great guy he was and we just loved him so much,” he said.