SINCE THE MORMON pioneers arrived in Utah, fifty-six police officers have been murdered in the line of duty. While some achieved notoriety through connections to romanticized Wild West mythology or twentieth-century cult stand-offs, most of these men have passed unnamed and unnoticed from the annals of state history. In "End of Watch Robert Kirby seeks to honor the memories of the fallen by telling their stories. Culled primarily from news reports--standardized police reporting being a relatively recent invention--Kirby sketches out the circumstances surrounding the deaths of each of the officers who paid the ultimate price in their efforts to keep the peace. Young and old, sons and fathers, brothers and husbands, each story resonates with hard lessons about lack of training, procedural errors, and often just the bad luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. "End of Watch is a testament to the tragedy of ordinary men who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances. Yet as Kirby points out in the foreword, "Tragic though this book may seem, the greater tragedy is that it will ever remain a work in progress."
- ISBN10 0874807832
- ISBN13 9780874807837
- Publish Date 23 February 2004
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 30 June 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Utah Press,U.S.
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 309
- Language English