National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day is Monday. On Smart Talk, we are joined by Les Neri, President of the Fraternal Order of Police Pennsylvania State Lodge and Joe Kovel, President of the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association to discuss policing in 2017.
Last week, rookie Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Landon Weaver was laid to rest -- a week after being shot and killed in Huntingdon County by a man who was accused of violating a Protection From Abuse Order. The 23-year-old Weaver was a newlywed who had just married his high school sweetheart a few months before.
Trooper Weaver was one of 140 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty in 2016 and one of four in Pennsylvania.
Five police officers were killed in an ambush in Dallas and three more were shot to death in Baton Rouge, Louisiana last July.
Those shootings may have been triggered in retaliation for several unrelated police shootings of African-American men. In fact, one of the most contentious issues facing the country today is the relationship between police officers and their communities.
