Law enforcement officers and the sacrifices they make in the line of duty are being celebrated during National Police Week.

Guthrie County Sheriff Marty Arganbright says these sacrifices are especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, as officers have to come in contact with anyone who may have the virus, “I mean all the police officers in the whole country do their job, no matter what’s going on we still do it. We go to every call and we have been with the times that are here right now, it’s hard to do that but we do what we have to do.”

All state flags in Iowa were also ordered to be lowered to half-staff in honor of Peace Officers Memorial Day which pays trib ute on May 15th each year to the officers that have died or have been disabled in the line of duty. There are three officers in Guthrie County that have fallen. Stuart Police Chief Robert Lynn Smith who died in 2010 as the result of an assault, Stuart Police Night Marshal Charles Loucks who died in 1954 after suffering a fatal heart attack shortly after a physical altercation, and Stuart Police Night Marshal John Kerr Myers who died from a gunshot wound in 1921.