MIAMI – Miami-Dade County is paying tribute to the law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
Black shirts worn by mannequins are on center display inside Miami-Dade County Hall. They represent each of the 139 officers killed in the line of duty in the county.
"This year is actually more, not more important, but more significant because of all the deaths that we've had in the country," Debbie Geary told Local 10 News. "It just seems like it's never stopping."
Geary is the widow of Officer David Strzalkowski, who was killed in the line of duty in 1988.
"It doesn't get any easier, and sometimes, it gets even harder, because you see more shirts," Geary said. "You see more officers' names every year, and that's the sad part."
On the front of each shirt are the words, "I died for you." On the back of each shirt is an officer's name and date of death.
This year, a shirt was added for Dwight Blackman Jr., a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer who was killed in a motorcycle crash in August.
"It hurts when we have to add a shirt," John Rivera, president of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association, said. "But we see people, and every year that we set it up, they cry, they come up to us, they thank us, they hug us and they say that, of all the displays here in County Hall, there's nothing more meaningful and more emotional to all the workers when they see this one."
Every day at noon throughout September, a roll call will be read on the loud speaker in the main lobby of County Hall for each officer killed in the line of duty.