Traverse City memorial honors fallen officers during Police Week

Downtown Traverse City paused Friday afternoon as the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office held its annual police memorial outside the Governmental Center at 400 Boardman Avenue, turning a county ceremony into a public reminder of the costs of law enforcement service. The gathering came during National Police Week, the observance created by Congress in 1962 when Public Law 87-726 set aside May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week containing it as Police Week.

The White House’s 2026 proclamation again designated May 15, 2026, as Peace Officers Memorial Day and May 10 through May 16, 2026, as Police Week. In Traverse City, that national observance was folded into a local memorial that invited residents to see police work not as an abstract government function, but as part of the city and county’s daily public life.

Undersheriff Randy Fewless said the memorial mattered not only for the families of fallen officers, but also for those still serving in local communities who need to know that their sacrifice is noticed and appreciated. The setting reinforced that message. County offices at the Governmental Center include administration, the county clerk, district court, family court, probate court, the treasurer and the sheriff’s office, making the memorial a reminder that law enforcement sits alongside the institutions residents rely on every day.

This year’s ceremony also carried a personal local legacy. Traverse City police and the sheriff’s office honored Sgt. Dennis Finch, who died in the line of duty on May 13, 1998, after gunshot wounds sustained while responding to a call on Wellington Street in Traverse City. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, Finch was 52 years old and had 30 years of service. The shared law enforcement center in Traverse City is named for him, extending his name into the routine work of the agencies that operate there now.

The county’s own history of policing ran through the remembrance as well. Grand Traverse County says Sheriff Mike Shea is the 35th sheriff to lead the office, and William H. Case was the first, serving from 1851 to 1853. That long line of sheriffs and deputies placed Friday’s memorial in a broader civic frame: a local institution asking the public to weigh the demands of service, the risks borne by officers and the obligation to remember those who never came home.

The national scale of that loss was visible too. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund said 363 names were to be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 2026, bringing added weight to a ceremony in downtown Traverse City that linked one county memorial to a national toll of 24,775 officers killed in the line of duty.