KSPPA

The idea for a Kentucky State Police Professional Association Memorial was created by Detective Robert Scott in 1997 after seeing a similar memorial in northern Kentucky. He contacted the monument’s maker, Nancy Holian of Holian Memorials in Erlanger, and inquired about having one developed for the Kentucky State Police. Detective Scott shared the idea with the Association’s Executive Board and approval was given to commission the making of the memorial. In a series of meetings with KSP Commissioner Gary Rose and others, the Memorial’s possible location was discussed along with several suggestions for its design.

Commissioner Rose, believing so much in the project, gave Detective Scott permission to place the memorial directly on Kentucky State Police property. Detective Scott and Ms. Holian proceeded with the monument’s planning, resulting in the design you see today. Having never been involved in such a project, Detective Scott stated that designing a memorial honoring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice has been a difficult and humbling experience.

The memorial is made of granite, is seven and one-half feet tall, nine feet long, and weighs approximately 4,700 pounds. It honors twenty-nine Kentucky State Police officers who have died in the line of duty since the agency’s beginning in 1948.

Parts of the Memorial have special meaning. The use of the summer straw uniform campaign hat signifies the birth of new life as this hat is worn by troopers for the first time each year in the spring. There is also a quote by Theodore Roosevelt, who was a New York Police Commissioner prior to becoming President of the United States.

The names of the officers remembered are randomly, not chronologically, placed on the Memorial and on pavers at the foot of the flagpole because each of these officer’s sacrifice is equally important regardless of the time it occurred in the agency’s history. Other pavers installed about the Memorial area have been purchased by loyal Kentucky State Police family and friends wishing to show support for the meaning behind the Memorial. The reflection bench at the end of the memorial island has engraved upon it a picture of a trooper signifying the agency’s appreciation of its past and anticipation of its future.