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May 12, 2008 (The Morning Call - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The face of officer Daniel Rice, the most recent Bethlehem police officer to die in the line of duty, is immortalized in bronze on the city's memorial to fallen police officers between the Fahy Bridge and the police station.

A shadow of Rice can be seen in the face of his son Jonathan, 29, one of dozens of family and friends of Bethlehem police officers who came to the city memorial to pay their respects in a candlelight vigil Sunday night. The ceremony was to mark the start of National Police Week, which includes a national event in Washington, D.C.

Jonathan Rice, then a 17-year-old junior at Liberty High School, said when he heard his father was killed in a traffic accident in 1997 it was a nightmare come true, one he'd never seriously considered.

"It was something over dinner we would talk about, not thinking the day would ever come when we would get the knock on our door," he said.

Rice helped light 187 candles -- one for every officer killed nationwide in 2007 -- during the vigil, while the names of each were read aloud. The event had special poignancy after the recent death of Steven Liczbinski, 40, a 12-year veteran of the Philadelphia force. Liczbinski was shot responding to a bank robbery May 3.

Deputy Police Commissioner Stuart Bedics said that while violent confrontations that result in death are the most sensational and well-known incidents, being a police officer involves many equally fatal risks that are less well-known. The second-most common way officers died nationwide in 2007 was in auto accidents, according to The Officer Down Memorial Page (www.odmp.org), which tracks police fatalities.

"It's always in the back of your mind," Bedics said. "When you decide to become a police officer, you accept the risk involved."

Bedics joined the Bethlehem department in 1987, and Daniel Rice has been the only city police officer to die on the job since then.

"He was a great guy," Bedics said. "When we lost Danny, we lost a part of our family."

The 187 names read aloud at the ceremony represented losses from virtually every state and U.S. territory, including Guam and Puerto Rico. Seven were women, and two were from Pennsylvania, both also from the Philadelphia force.

Many, like Daniel Rice, left behind families. But Jonathan Rice said he feels connected to his father through his job with the city's Bureau of Streets. He now repairs the same streets his father patrolled.

"It's a weird feeling, but it's a good feeling too," he said. "I'm proud to be the son of officer Daniel Rice."

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Chris Pollock

Copyright (C) 2008 The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.

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