Area Law Enforcement Leaders To Meet In Kilgore

Police Chiefs and Sheriffs from 20 East Texas counties will hold a press conference at 1:00 pm this Thursday, January 10. This press conference will be held at the Kilgore Police Department located at 909 N. Kilgore St, Kilgore, Texas 75662. The purpose of the press conference and mass gathering of law enforcement officials is to publicly support the 100 Club of East Texas, a non-profit 501(c)(3) Foundation.

Law Enforcement in east Texas has fought hard to improve how we police. Unfortunately, we do not always get the support we need from community members or even our governing bodies. More law enforcement officers – 144 – died in the line of duty in the United States in 2018 than in 2017, reversing a one-year decline, according to a preliminary report released Thursday by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.  Texas was one of four states leading the number of officer deaths will 11 fallen officers.

Seeing a regional need in Rast Texas, a regional group of civic and business leaders has come together to create a non-profit organization to support dependents and spouses of fallen officers who are killed or catastrophically injured in the line of duty. This foundation will provide support to law enforcement in 20 east Texas counties. As the foundation grows, the foundation will provide financial assistance for training and equipment not budgeted through governing bodies.

Also, we are honored that both current and past presidents from the Texas Police Chiefs Association, East Texas Police Chiefs Association, and Texas Sheriffs Association and Federal law enforcement will be in attendance. We are asking press officials to come and report on this press release event to ensure we get the word out that this is a valid organization supported by east Texas Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.

For more information on the 100 Club of East Texas go to https://www.easttexas100club.org/.