\u201cNational Police Week, and specifically Peace Officers Memorial Day, is a period designated\u00a0to honor all law enforcement officers for their sacrifice in serving the public and remember those who have died or have been disabled in the line of duty,\u201d Chief Elias Vazquez said.<\/p>\n
The observation dates to\u00a01962 when then President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation designating May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which it falls as Police Week.<\/p>\n
Eight Reading officers are known to have died in the line of duty.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir service and sacrifice are etched into the fabric of our community\u2019s history,\u201d Vazquez said. \u201cTheir commitment to public safety and their ultimate sacrifice as well as that of many law enforcement officers throughout our nation will never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_1699.jpeg\")
A new memorial inside police headquarters at Reading\u2019s City Hall honors the 8 city officers killed in the line of duty since 1868.
\n(Courtesy of the city of Reading.)<\/p>\n
The memorial consists of a center plaque featuring the poem \u201cThe Monument\u201d<\/a> by Sgt. George Hahn, retired, of the Los Angeles Police Department and the image of an officer kneeling at a grave.<\/p>\n It is surrounded by eight smaller plaques memorializing the following fallen officers:<\/p>\n Patrolman William Levan<\/a> \u2013 End of watch, Feb. 27, 1868.
\nPatrolman Charles F. Finn \u2013 End of watch, May 11, 1905.
\nPatrolman John W. Kissinger \u2013 End of watch, Sept. 16, 1911.
\nPatrolman Henry C. Stoudt \u2013 End of watch, July 1, 1924.
\nPatrolman Thomas H. Kintzer \u2013 End of watch, Feb. 7, 1925.
\nPatrolman Olin J. Wait \u2013 End of watch, Sept. 2, 1972.
\nPatrolman Michael H. Wise II<\/a> \u2013 End of watch, June 5, 2004.
\nPatrolman Scott Wertz<\/a> \u2013 End of watch, Aug. 6, 2006.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new memorial in Reading\u2019s City Hall honors those police officers whose lives were lost in the line…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,857,182,139,28,736,128,130,129,706],"class_list":["post-274742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-essential-reading","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}