Approximately two weeks ago, Chief James Chadwick met with funeral home directors concerning safety issues with police escorts during funeral processions. Also, at or around the same time the Chief had a Sergeant in the Patrol Division to contact several other law enforcement agencies in the surrounding area to see how they handle funeral processions.
The Chief was concerned for the safety of motorists during a funeral procession and met with the directors to voice these concerns and discuss ways to make the escort safer. Currently, the procedure that is followed involves a single police officer arriving at the funeral home shortly before the escort is needed. Once the procession is underway, the officer, using emergency lights, leads the vehicles through the city to the grave site.
The problem is that with a long escort, friends or relatives of the deceased toward the end of the procession will pass through a red traffic signal with no police vehicle present to notify other drivers of the escort. This could possibly cause a traffic crash since other motorist may not be looking for a others proceeding through the intersection on a red light.
Georgia Code 40-6-76 governs Funeral Processions. While given the "right of way" at intersections, participants of the procession are not allowed to proceed through a red traffic signal under the law unless an officer is present controlling the intersection.
For the procession to be done safely and legally, it will require an officer be present at each intersection the procession will pass through. It is estimated that it will take 5 officers to conduct a procession which will last approximately 30 minutes from the funeral home to the grave site. If this is done, it would put a strain on the remaining officers to respond to the calls for service during that time frame. Also, the police department can’t predict or control events that may occur. It is possible that an emergency call can happen during a procession requiring all officers to respond. This must be taken into consideration.
Further discussion will continue to try and identify a solution that is both safe and legal, and still provide for a proper police response to other members of the community.
Why would the city want to charge a fee to escort funerals when the tax payers are paying you to do that job as a police officer. Let’s put this in perspective.
When a police officer dies or is killed while on active duty, who do you think pays for the overtime pay that the hundreds of police officers who attend will receive. Who will pay for the police cars, motorcycles and gasoline that will be used in the officers funeral. The answer is the public tax payer.
So why would should the tax payer have to pay the police to show up at their funeral for a few hours and do an escort.
This is not a good idea and you should think about the cost to the tax payer the next time you see over 100 police officers attending one of their fellow officers funeral. Who will pay for the overtime of all of the police officers at the funeral?
Mr Love:
You make your point well. Our main concern is safety, and we have never said we want to charge anyone for this service, although the law allows it and some other agencies in Georgia do just that.
Thank you for taking the time to look at this site, and for posting a response.
I am not addressing the issue of charging for funeral escorts. This is not a decision for me to make. However, I believe Mr. Love is mistaken in referring to the pay for police officers at police funerals. I unfortunately have attended several funerals for police officers and fire fighters. While tax payers’ money was used to pay for fuel for cars and motorcycles, I don’t believe any officers attending requested pay, let alone overtime pay to attend the funeral. Most of the officers seen at funerals are off duty. They are there on their own time, not being paid to be there. Police officers and fire fighters have dangerous and often thankless job. We do not choose to do this for the pay or the glory. It is for the satisfaction of serving our community. When one of our own is tragically lost, we pay our respect with a big turn out at the funeral. So please Mr. Love, do not disrespect our fallen comrades over a disagreement with a new policy.
I lived one year in Cobb County and was amazed by the way they conducted funeral escorts. Having lived in Dalton since birth until I graduuated high school, I had never seen anything like it. During a funeral procession they use about 5 or so officers. One leads the group, another tails the group, and then several more alternate turns and block of each intersection for a brief moment until the procession passes safely through. Once the procession has passed through that intersection the officer blocking it goes ahead of the procession up to the next unblocked intersection and block it off. Several units are doing this alternation so a single unit arrives at an unblocked intersection and has time to block it off b/c of the fact that other officers are blocking previous intersections where the procession is actually passing through. It works out really well and I got a proud feeling seeing the department put all those resources together in respect for the dead. As far as I know there is no fee associated with this service, and it is just a service provided for the safety of everyone. I hope Dalton Police Department looks into procedures such as the one mentioned above and opts not to charge for the escorts. I feel this would be a great disrespect to the dead and their families.
I wanted to post a comment regarding Mr. Love’s previous comment. Mr. Love I myself am a wife of a police officer and I do not agree with ur comments. I understand that u dont’ want ur tax dollars being spent on anything but to be honest, if it wasn’t for law enforcement and firefighters how would u sleep at night. They protect and serve taking countless hours away from there families to make sure that u are safe in ur bed at night. So please think again before u make hateful comments, because those few heroes are the ones that help us all sleep safe at night. God Bless!!