Lincoln officers rise in unity for the fallen

Two Lincoln officers joined the Police Unity Tour in May: a journey to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. Brett Schneider, a Lincoln Police Department Motor Officer of 19 years, first attended the event in 2015 after watching his peer from Rocklin in it for a while. This year, he brought along his wife, Janelle, and co-worker Jeremy Pollard, an LPD Officer of 3.5 years. Schneider said the tour is to honor those who died in the line of duty. "The motto of the tour is we ride for those who died. And with that, it's the ability to ensure that those have been killed in the line of duty are never forgotten," he shared. "Every year, when we ride, we wear a bracelet with a name of an officer from an agency or multiple officers from multiple agencies around the US. We wear a bracelet with their name and their end-of-watch date, and we ride to the memorial with that bracelet. Basically, we're bringing them home. For me, it's ensuring that their memory is never forgotten." Active police officers do the ride yearly alongside the surviving family members of officers that were killed in the line of duty. Schneider hopes more officers from Lincoln can join the Northern California chapter. To participate in the Police Unity Tour, each participant has to raise a minimum donation that is different for each chapter. Chapter 13 has to raise $2,300. He said the Lincoln Public Safety Foundation was his biggest donor. The donation goes to the National Law Enforcement Memorial. Schneider said this year, the organization presented the memorial a check for an overall $2.2 million. He said it is a huge fundraiser that makes any participant emotional. Participants ride in any weather condition. Rain or shine. They are just grateful to have their lives and their health and the ability to participate. Schneider shared the cyclists train through an intensive schedule. "The cyclists here, they go through a pretty intensive pre-ride training schedule, and they do group training rides. They do multiple day training rides," he explained. "And for our chapter alone, there, they ride on the American Bear River bike trail, doing, you know, a 32-mile training ride. They'll do an overnight ride along the coast, Napa Valley area. Sometimes, they'll do rides around Tahoe." He shared each chapter around the country has different schedules to prepare for different weather and road conditions. "It's different for everybody that participates. You know, when we train in California, we have hills," Schneider explained. "The New Jersey officers that train, they don't have a lot of hills. So, you know, the people that may be coming from Wyoming, maybe they're training on more flat surface. So the training changes based on where you're from."