‘We ride for those who died’

Local retired DPS officer participates in annual Police Unity Tour

(ROCKWALL, TX – March 29, 2017) For the past 10 years, local retired DPS Narcotics Officer Barry Morris has hopped on his bike to join hundreds of fellow officers in the annual Police Unity Tour (PUT), honoring his brothers and sisters in blue who died in the line of duty.

Morris, an investigator for the Rockwall County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, is looking to partake in his 11th year on the tour when it starts on May 9. Thousands of law enforcement officers from around the country and the globe participate in the tour every year, riding to honor fallen officers of the past year. Morris will ride with a group of more than 800 officers on a route which spans six states in four days, beginning just outside of New York City and ending at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Museum in Washington, D.C.

Morris said he first learned about the tour 12 years ago on a family trip to the nation’s capital. They were coming from the Smithsonian Natural History Museum when the they heard the sirens and saw all the officers riding their bikes on their way to the NLEOM. “We were over at the Memorial where all of the riders were gathered, and I ask somebody, ‘What’s this about?’ They were telling me about the tour, and my wife looked at me and said, ‘You need to do this next year.’ And I said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ll be doing that next year.’ And I’ve been doing it every year since.”

According to the PUT’s website – www.policeunitytour.com – the primary purpose of the tour is to raise awareness of the police officers who died in the line of duty, and secondly, to raise funds for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and Museum. The website states that the tour was first organized in May 1997 by Officer Patrick P. Montuore of the Florham Park Police Department, and 18 riders participated in the first tour from Florham Park, N.J. to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in D.C. Over 2,000 officers rode in the PUT last year, raising $2.5 million for the NLEOM Fund.

The tour kicks off National Police Week, which is celebrated in May every year in Washington, D.C.

The NLEOM features a couple of curving, 300-foot-long marble walls with the names of more than 20,000 officers killed in the line of duty carved into them. The names go all the way back to the very first known police officer death in the late 1700s.

“To me, the best way I can describe it is it’s hallowed ground as a police officer. It’s kind of like going to Arlington National Cemetery,” Morris said. “Although there’s no one buried at the memorial, I realize that those names represent a brother or a sister who has fallen in the line of duty. It’s a very emotional and somber experience when I’m there, because there’s over 20,000 names on that wall and unfortunately it continues to grow.”

Morris described riding in the tour as a “myriad of experiences,” best described by the PUT’s motto – “We ride for those who died.”

“It’s a time to reflect on those who you’re riding for and those who you didn’t know who have fallen in the line of duty,” he said. “It’s a time to renew friendships from the people you meet when you ride. I have met officers from all over the Unites States, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Israel, from just about everywhere. It can be strenuous at times, being on a bicycle for 8-10 hours every day.”

This year, Morris said he will ride in memory of several officers of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Trooper Jeffery Nichols who died in a car crash, and the five Dallas police officers who died in the July 7 ambush during a peaceful protest of the Minnesota and Louisiana police shootings. He’ll also ride for Wayne State University Officer Collin Rose, who was killed while on bike patrol on the Detroit campus. Morris met Rose while on the PUT, and the two rode together in the last two tours. Rose proposed to his girlfriend at the NLEOM at the end of last year’s PUT, and the two were to be married in January of this year.

Morris said 252 names will be added to the walls of the Memorial this year.

“I look at it when I’m riding as getting to attend 252 police funerals, to pay my respects to those 252 fallen law enforcement officers. For four days as I pedal, in some small way I’m honoring them and hopefully drawing a positive influence for the public in police officers,” he said.

As the PUT’s primary goal is to raise funds for the NLEOM, each rider is required to raise the necessary funds for an entry fee to participate in the tour. This year, Morris is required to raise $1,850 as an entry fee. At the time of this writing he has raised $1,400.

Morris invites all who would like to help him enter the tour this year to donate to his fundraising page provided by the Police Unity Tour, Inc. at secure.policeunitytour.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?RegistrationID=3615352#&panel1-3.

The Police Unity Tour, Inc. is a nonprofit organization under section 501(3) of the Internal Revenue code. Donations made for the PUT are fully tax deductible and should be made payable to:

Texas Troopers – Police Unity Tour

C/O Barry Morris
1111 E. Yellow Jacket Lane, Suite 201
Rockwall, TX 75087

By Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News. Top photo by Richard Redig. Group photo courtesy of Barry Morris.

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