Crime & Safety

Howard County Police: 'We Ride for Those Who Died'

The Howard County Police Department joins departments from across the country this week for the Police Unity Tour, a bike ride memorializing officers who died in the line of duty.

Midway through a 350-mile bike ride, your mind can begin to wander. There’s fatigue, a sore backside and the monotony of motion.

“There are times when there’s a lot of conversation,” said Howard County Police Chief William McMahon, but there are also “a lot of times when it’s quiet and you have time to think.

"Going up a hill, you’re getting a little tired, and then you look down at the  bracelet and think, ‘This is not as bad as what that officer went through.’”

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That’s what keeps the 28 representatives of the Howard County Police Department going during the 350-mile  Police Unity Tour, a ride that memorializes police officers killed in the line of duty.

The officers and support personnel wear bracelets with the inscriptions of the officers they are memorializing. .

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The sixth officer was Scott Wheeler. On June 6, 2007, Wheeler was working traffic enforcement on Route 32. It was a Saturday.

“He went out to flag down a young lady driving over the limit,” McMahon said, “maybe 77 mph in a 55 mph zone. He was trying to pull her over. At some point she was on a cell phone and ran over Scott.”

He died two days later at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma unit, McMahon said. He left behind his parents, brother and wife of nine months. 

In 2009, Wheeler’s brother, Mike, joined McMahon and another Howard County police officer in the Unity Tour, riding in honor of Scott. The next year, a group of more than a dozen rode. This year, 24 officers and four support personnel will ride to New Jersey, where, on Tuesday, they will meet with police officers from as far away as Texas. 

Together the group—upward of 2,000 riders, according to McMahon—will ride to Ground Zero to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Then they will ride together to Annapolis, and on May 12 to Washington, D.C.

Along the way, there will be planned stops and ceremonies memorializing officers killed in the line of duty. “But there is lots of impromptu stuff,” McMahon said.

“School kids will come out to watch and salute, and to wave. When you get off the bikes … you run into a lot of people that have experienced the loss of a loved one on the job.”

To help ensure that those lost are not forgotten, the names of those killed in the line of duty will be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, which includes names from as early as the 1700s.

Along the route, officers stop, hold memorial services and moments of silence for officers in the jurisdictions through which they’re passing. 

“It’s a pretty emotional experience sometimes,” McMahon said. “But it’s been a rewarding experience for us.”

You can make a pledge online at hcpdcyclingteam.org or send a check to the Howard County Police Department: 3410 courthouse drive, 21043 Attn: Office of the Chief. Checks should be made to Police Unity Tour.


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