National Police Week has long been one of my favorite times of the year in the Washington DC area. There are really only a handful of events that genuinely consume the region. Rolling Thunder comes to mind, which back in its heyday would fill the streets of not only DC, but those across the Potomac into Virginia as well with the loudest, baddest motorcycles you would ever see. Hundreds of them would be everywhere with MIA/POW and American flags flying from the backs.

Police Week is like that, with police of every flavor, from staties to city cops to county sheriffs to tactical teams, together parading the law enforcement rainbow of colors with their white, blue, black, grey, green, tan, and brown uniforms and every hat imaginable (from the classic eight-point dress cap to basic stetsons to Montana peaks).

I always want to take pictures of the large groups of them walking down the street every which way, as it is quite a sight, but I feel weird taking pictures of people who are otherwise minding their own business.

However, on Monday, when I was out was the Annual National Peace Officers' Memorial Service (which marks what is basically, a Memorial Day for cops), I headed over to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial where it would feel less stalky to be snapping pictures.

The memorial is maybe a fifteen minute walk northwest of the Capitol a handful of blocks off the Mall (where all the monuments are).

I have been meaning to visit the National Law Enforcement Museum across E Street but have been waiting for relative who is a retired officer to visit so we can all go as a family. As such, I had not been here before. It is a somber place, and even more so given the day.

But it's also a place of honor and celebration of the character and dedication these lost lives represent.

Monday was also the annual Stand Watch for the Fallen, in which "honor guards stand watch for 10-minute intervals to honor and remember the law enforcement officers that made the ultimate sacrifice."

The officers taking upcoming shifts staged to the right.

The area was ringed with wreaths and other remembrances.

There was even one honoring the police dogs who sacrificed their lives for their fellow officers.

The memorial includes a wall inscribed with the names of the fallen. It was similarly adorned with all manner of tokens and placards with officers taking quiet moments to pay their respects.

I took some time here to let it soak in. There were too many names to comprehend, like a war memorial, but I took a moment to focus in on a few. It drives the point home, and reminds us that each of these names represents a lost son, daughter, father, husband, wife, and loved one.

One thing that moved me unexpectedly was something I had either not noticed before, or didn't understand. Police officers abandon the born/died convention of gravestones and other memorials. Police officers don't die. It is their "End of Watch," or "EOW."

They truly came from all over for this week (technically two, as it goes through this Saturday). I took this picture on the way to the memorial. An Orange County Sheriff's Office Honor Guard from Florida parked behind a Traffic Supervisor from Newark New Jersey.

You just don't see that every day.

I wanted to stare at the patches to get a sense of all the jurisdictions they were representing, but that felt really weird, though I did catch a few. They were from Denver, Chicago, upstate New York, and so on.

I will leave you with this, a small group waiting by the honor guards standing watch, clearly from vastly different parts of the country, but coming together quietly to honor fellow officers, the vast majority of whom they may never have met, but on some level, most certainly knew.