 In conjunction with National Police Officers Memorial Week, the Pikeville Police Department hosted an officer appreciation ceremony Friday at the East Kentucky Expo Center. The ceremony first started three years ago when area law enforcement officers joined together to pray around a flagpole. But now the ceremony has grown into something bigger. They have events other places but there's a lot of names on this memorial. There's a lot of officers that gave their lives in the line of duty for our Eastern Kentucky community. Other area law enforcement officers say ceremonies like this are very meaningful to them and are happy to share it with their families. Each and every time that your loved one is an officer you know puts their uniform on and leaves home to go to work you know you never know anything can happen. One state trooper was on duty when another trooper was killed in a car crash. He says that is what this ceremony is all about. It makes you feel good and it's really not about us it's about remembering the family and helping keep their sacrifice remembered and so they're not forgotten. After the ceremony inside the Expo Center, law enforcement, family and community members joined together at the fallen officer's monument outside the courthouse for a moment of silence. Family members place special roses beside the monument to remember those they have lost. Reporting in Pikeville for EKB News, I'm Shelby Steele.