GREEN BAY — As the police community mourns the loss of Milwaukee officer Peter Jerving, local law enforcement is showing their support for the family.
Green Bay Chief of Police Chris Davis says that they've been focused on helping the family and officers in Milwaukee in any way possible. Davis says the city played a role in this afternoon's memorial service.
"We have an honor guard, most departments our size do, and that's a group of people that's trained in some of the ceremonial aspects of events like this," said Davis.
He says that Wisconsin also has a response team that come in to help plan the memorial service and assist officers who may be struggling with trauma.
"They do training for us in mental health and wellness and you know they're certainly available to anyone who just needs a little bit of help processing what's going on," said Davis.
There are also many local and national non-profit organizations that assist police departments and families of fallen officers. The Concerns of Police Survivors organization, also known as COPS, has chapters nationwide including in Wisconsin.
"Getting survivors in touch with others who understand what they're going through, who have an idea of the grief under publicity," said Tony Williams.
Williams is a communications director for the non-profit which has different programs throughout the year. The focus is on establishing a bond between families and officers who have dealt with the passing of a loved one in the line of duty.
"We have 13 different retreats this year alone so that each survivor type can get together in a space away from their daily stress and talk with people who have been through or are going through the same types of things," said Williams.
He says this helps create a support group that can empathize with families well beyond the first few months.
"One of the other biggest things is grief does not have a timeline," said Williams.
