Pennsylvania State Police are asking that people add a blue light to their homes this holiday season to honor all officers killed in the line of duty.
"Project Blue Light" is a nationwide effort to add some blue to the holiday light displays in homes and office buildings. State Police Sergeant Anthony Manetta said it can be a blue light in a window, or on a Christmas tree, and added that the somber hues stand out to officers on patrol.
"Those troopers or police officers that are working those late shifts on the holidays that as they drive through and things are quiet and as they see that blue light, it reminds them that people really do care, and there's a kindness out there that is conveyed to them," said Manetta.
The project was launched in 1988 by the mother of a fallen Philadelphia police officer. Since then, it has been adopted by the nonprofit group Concerns of Police Survivors, which represents some 15,000 families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.
Ninety-three members of the Pennsylvania State Police have died while serving since the department was founded in 1905.
There have been five police fatalities in Pennsylvania so far this year. Included in that number is Tuesday's fatal shooting of Officer John David Dryer of Claysville, who was shot during a traffic stop. He was a member of the East Washington Borough Police Department.
