The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund tells us that the number of law enforcement professionals who died in the line of duty nationwide in 2021 increased by more than 50 percent over 2020. Last year, 458 officers from all sources — federal, state, county, municipal, campus, tribal and territorial — were killed performing in their sworn offices.

While many of these deaths were related to COVID-19, 2021 goes down as the most line-of-duty deaths since 1930 due to the pandemic and increases in traffic and firearms ambushes, NLEOMF indicated.

Alabama saw 12 such deaths in 2021, three of these related to gunfire Nationwide, this year is not looking much brighter.

On June 9, Meridian police officer Kennis Croom was shot to death while responding to a domestic violence call. On Thursday, mourners from both Alabama and Mississippi attended Croom’s funeral at a filled-to-capacity gymnasium at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa.

Those mourners came from both states to pay their final respects not only because Croom was rightly claimed by both — he grew up in Tuscaloosa and served as a law enforcement officer there and other areas before working in Meridian — but because when any law officer, anywhere, is killed in the line of duty it is not a local, state or regional tragedy, it is a test and trial of our nation.

Our hearts and prayers go out to Croom’s family. A father of three, his was a life taken much too soon. But more, his heroism in the line of duty was magnified the day his life was taken — he was supposed to be off from work.

Our law enforcement officers go to work — on duty or off — with the knowledge that any day, any watch could be their last. Their families bear this burden along with them. It requires an incredible commitment to the community they serve to leave their homes each day knowing this.

Croom worked and died as a hero — as heroic as are the men and women who serve today. They deserve our gratitude and our respect every day. And when they fall, they deserve our remembrance for doing what few are willing to do: protecting our homes, lives and communities to their last breath.