A contingent of Woonsocket police officers and supporters on South Main Street Friday morning begin the first leg of their 450-mile walk to Washington D.C. for COPS Walk 2008.  Call photo/Ernest A. Brown

By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — Local police officers know when they go to work there is always a risk they could fall into harm’s way.

That goes with the job and it’s what police train to avoid while learning procedures and techniques to protect themselves and the public.
It is also why a dozen members of the Police Department stepped away from River Island Park Friday morning for their annual walk and run to Washington, D.C.
The department’s 450-mile COPS Walk journey will help raise money for the Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) organization that assists the families of fallen members of law enforcement nationwide.
Local police officers, their families and friends marked the moment by remembering the city’s fallen police department member, Albert A. Lemoine, who was killed in the line of duty in October 1937, and also the names of 58 officers nationwide who were killed on May 9 since 1886.
The walkers also gave special recognition to Robert Shaw, the father of fallen Providence Police Sgt. Steven Shaw, who represents COPS in Rhode Island, and is always available when members of a police department need a lift in spirits.
Patrolman George McMann told the gathering he has made seven of the department’s eight walks to Washington D.C. but early on had not really understood what they accomplished until he had the chance to see Shaw at work for the organization.
“He is a role model for all of us, and despite the daily struggle he must endure, I have yet to see him without a smile on his face,” McMann said while explaining why he would be dedicating his effort this year to the 72-year-old Shaw.
McMann’s work with the local department and contacts with other departments in the state has given him a “perspective” on what a police officer’s life is all about, he noted.
“But that perspective cannot hold a candle to the pain and loss that one must feel when a loved one loses their life in the line of duty,” McMann said.
“After that life has been taken what is left?” he asked the gathering. “That question is where the COPS organization comes in. What is left are survivors who stick together. I feel that the COPS organization is the most vital resource for those who are left behind, the survivors,” he said.
McMann said Shaw was the best example of a survivor he knows.
“You are a humble, friendly, generous, strong, gracious and caring man,” McMann said. “But on a day like today, you give meaning to what it takes to be a survivor. I walk for COPS but today I walk for you.”
Shaw, who lost his son to a police gun battle with a suspect in 1994, usually attends the department’s walk send-offs with his wife, Judith, but she has been seriously ill. So Shaw was at River Island Park Friday with Steven’s father-in-law, Sal Conti, and as usual was upbeat and smiling to everyone he met.
“It’s amazing what they do,” Shaw said of the department’s journey south to raise funding for COPS. A former runner himself, Shaw said he would love to make the trip with the local officers some year. He even might try running, he said, while recalling how he used to train with Steven as he worked to get in shape for his job in law enforcement.
“I used to be faster, but then he got better than me,” Shaw said of his son. While not joining the police on their journey this year, Shaw will be leaving Providence by train on Sunday so he can meet up with the crew of walkers and runners when they reach Washington and join the national Police Week observances there.
Patrolman John Douglas, a department member for three years, will be making the COPS Walk journey for the first time. He was ready to go even with the rain expected to pelt the team through at least half of the four-and-a-half-day trip. The crew will be taking two police vehicles on the journey for safety, along with a mobile home courtesy of Flagg RV in North Smithfield as their traveling base.
Each member of the team will rotate through shifts, keeping one member walking or running at all times. Douglas can expect to put in four miles on the road each time his turn comes up in the rotation and will probably tally about 40 miles of travel himself by the time the trip ends.
The police officer spent four years with the Marines. He believes that should help him handle the physical demands of the walk.
Living with 12 police officers in a cramped temporary home that won’t offer much comfort as the trip wears on the participants could be another matter, according to COPS Walk veterans.
“It means you really aren’t going to get much sleep for the next few days,” Sgt. Todd Boisvert, who has made the seven times, said while enjoying a send-off by his wife, Jessica, and sons Todd Jr. and Jack.“But we’ll get through it and it will also be a lot of fun.”
Jessica said she was sad to see Boisvert go, but also knows it will help a cause important to police. “I support him in it 100 percent,” she said.
As he addressed the gathering Friday, acting Police Chief Eric Croce pointed to the local department’s efforts for COPS as also helping call attention to the very real risks police face in their jobs.
Croce said 181 members of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies died in the line of duty in 2007, “one of the highest fatality figures in recent memory.”
That may be overlooked by civilians to some degree, but police know that “this is a true life event that happens to our officers nationally,” he said.
Woonsocket is not excluded from such risks, he added. “As we know, we have violence in the community and it can happen at any time,” Croce said.
The chief concluded with praise for the “members of the Woonsocket Police Department who have taken their time to “represent this department and their city” by walking to Washington in support of the COPS organization. To date, Croce said the local officers have raised more the $50,000 for COPS, more than any other group has brought in for the organization during the same period.
“I wish them a safe journey in the effort to recognize their fellow brothers and sisters who have made the ultimate sacrifice,” he said.
City Council President Leo T. Fontaine joined Councilwoman Suzanne J. Vadenais at the send-off and also credited local police for all their work on behalf of COPS.
“The fact you have raised more money for this organization than any other group is not surprising,” Fontaine said while wishing the walkers a safe trip.
As the team completed their goodbyes and started up the first mile along South Main Street, with Shaw and Conti and several relatives in tow, Sgt. Mark Cabral, this year’s trip leader, said he was glad it had finally begun.
“It looks like it will be a little tough with the rain, but we will still get through it. We are still going to go all the way to Washington just like we always do,” he said.
 Another of the walkers, Patrolman Bill Coupe, echoed that sentiment as the team made the turn out of the city onto Smithfield Road in North Smithfield.
“I think it’s a great way to get out there and raise some money for a group that will be helping the families of fallen police officers,” he said.