Menlo Park Police Officers' Association

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Menlo Park Police Officers' Association

The Menlo Park Police Officers' Association consists of sworn officers, whom have taken an oath to m

09/11/2026

This year, for the first time, there will be a seventh moment of silence.

At the ceremony marking twenty five years since September 11, 2001, the six moments the country knows will be observed. The two towers struck, the two towers fallen, the Pentagon, and Flight 93. Then, after the reading of the names, a seventh will be added for those who have died of 9/11 related illness. The 9/11 Memorial and Museum has said it will be a permanent part of the ceremony from now on.

It was added because the arithmetic finally demanded it. 2,977 people from 90 nations were killed that day, among them 441 first responders from more than thirty agencies. 343 FDNY members. 37 from the Port Authority Police Department. 23 from the NYPD.

In the years since, more than 400 FDNY members have died of World Trade Center related illness. More than died on the day itself.

Twenty five years is long enough that a generation now learns this as history. It is not history to the people still being buried from it.

Share this post in their honor.

09/07/2026

Eighty one percent of private industry workers have access to paid holidays, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Which is another way of saying roughly one in five does not.

Labor Day did not arrive as a gift. The first one was September 5, 1882, in New York City. Congress made it a federal holiday on June 28, 1894, in the middle of the Pullman Strike.

The eight hour day took longer, and it did not arrive the way most people think. It was a demand for decades before Congress first wrote it into law, and even then only for interstate railroad workers, under the Adamson Act of 1916. The law most Americans actually work under today, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, does not cap your hours at all. It requires time and a half after forty in a week.

None of that was inevitable. Someone argued for every piece of it.

Members of this association will be on duty today, the way they are on most days the rest of the country has off.

09/05/2026

Nine out of ten people who attempt su***de and survive do not go on to die by su***de later.

That figure comes from Harvard's Means Matter project, drawing on a review of ninety studies. It is worth sitting with, because of what it actually means. For most people the worst moment is not the permanent one. It passes. They go on.

September is National Su***de Prevention Month, and this is the month to say the difficult part plainly. Research from CNA and First H.E.L.P. documented 1,287 law enforcement and corrections personnel lost to su***de between 2016 and 2022, an average of roughly 184 a year.

Those numbers are not here to frighten anyone. They are here because a hazard that goes unnamed does not stop being a hazard.

Members of this association carry this alongside everything else the job asks of them. We would rather talk about it early than talk about it after.

If you are carrying something heavy right now, the odds are better than the moment feels.

Send this post to one person you have not checked on in a while.

***dePreventionMonth

09/03/2026

The 72 hour emergency kit is out of date.

The current federal guidance does not give you a number of days at all. It says one gallon of water per person per day, plus non perishable food, for several days. The vagueness is deliberate. Three days was always a planning convenience, not a promise about how long you would be on your own.

Here is where most households actually stand, according to FEMA's 2024 National Household Survey. Sixty nine percent have assembled emergency supplies. Only forty two percent have an emergency plan.

The supplies are the easy half. The plan is the half that decides whether the supplies are any use.

And a plan is not complicated. Where do we meet. Who do we call. Who gets the kids. What happens to the dog. Ten minutes at a kitchen table puts you ahead of most of the country.

Our members would rather knock on a door where that conversation already happened.

If you already have a plan, comment below with the one thing yours includes that most people forget.

08/29/2026

Happy 110th birthday to the Marine Forces Reserve.

On August 29, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Naval Appropriations Act, formally establishing the Marine Corps Reserve as World War I loomed and the country began preparing for the possibility of entering it.

Here is the growth curve: in April 1916, the Reserve consisted of 35 Marines. By the time Germany surrendered in November 1918, it had reached 6,467. Reserve Marines fought at Belleau Wood, Soissons, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne.

Today, Marine Forces Reserve is the largest command in the Marine Corps, with roughly 40,000 drilling Selected Reserve Marines across 184 Reserve Training Centers nationwide. They hold civilian careers and stay mission-ready at the same time.

Several members of this association do exactly that. Two commitments. One standard.

Semper Fidelis.

08/15/2026

The most dangerous part of a child's school day happens before the first bell and after the last one.

NHTSA data shows more school-age pedestrians are killed between 6 and 8 in the morning and between 3 and 5 in the afternoon than during any other hours of the day. Those are exactly the windows when kids are walking to stops, cutting across parking lots, and heading home with headphones in.

A few things worth saying out loud to any child walking to school this year. Use the sidewalk whenever there is one. If there is not, walk facing traffic so you can see what is coming. Cross at corners and marked crossings, never between parked cars. And put the phone away for the length of the walk, because a driver who is not paying attention needs you to be the one who is.

Our members will be on those routes when the year starts. We are glad to be there.

Comment with the age of the kid in your life heading back to class.

08/07/2026

There is no medal a service member volunteers for. The Purple Heart is the one nobody wants to earn.

It is awarded for being wounded or killed in action against an enemy of the United States. Not for valor. Not for leadership. For bearing the cost.

Established by George Washington on August 7, 1782 as the Badge of Military Merit and revived as the Purple Heart in 1932, it is the oldest military decoration still awarded in the United States. The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor estimates roughly 1.8 million have been given out, though records from the early years are incomplete. Approximately 430,000 were awarded posthumously.

Many members of this association are veterans. Some carry this decoration. Some lost friends who earned it the hardest way possible.

Today, and every day, we honor them.

Tag a Purple Heart recipient or a family member who carries that legacy in the comments.

08/04/2026

Happy 236th birthday to the United States Coast Guard.

On August 4, 1790, at the request of Alexander Hamilton, Congress authorized the construction of ten cutters to patrol the young nation's coastline. That small fleet, originally called the Revenue Cutter Service, became the oldest continuous seagoing service in the United States.

Here is a detail most people never learn: from 1790 until the Navy was reestablished in 1798, those ten cutters were the only armed maritime force this country had. Eight years where the entire defense of the American coast rested on a handful of ships and the people who crewed them.

Today the Coast Guard carries out eleven statutory missions, from search and rescue to maritime law enforcement to environmental protection. Different tools, same job.

To everyone who has served, thank you for 236 years of standing watch.

Tag a Coast Guard veteran in the comments who deserves recognition today.

Semper Paratus. Always Ready.

07/25/2026

🎄 It is Christmas in July, and we are not letting the day slide by unnoticed.

The tradition dates all the way back to 1933, when a girls' summer camp in North Carolina decided that December was too long to wait for the magic of Christmas. They strung up decorations, sang carols, and called it Christmas in July. The idea stuck.

For the members of this association, who spend so much of the real holiday season working through it, this is a chance to enjoy a little of that holiday spirit during a quieter season.

Comment below with one thing you would put under a tree in July if you could. We will start: a nap.

07/04/2026

🎆 Happy Fourth of July from this association to your family. 🎆

This year is different. America is celebrating its 250th birthday, and there is no better time to pause and appreciate what this country was built on.

A fun fact for the day: The first organized Independence Day celebration took place in Philadelphia on July 4, 1777, exactly one year after the Declaration was signed. It included a 13-gun salute and the very first Fourth of July fireworks display. The tradition you are about to enjoy tonight is 249 years old.

🔥 Quick safety reminder while you are celebrating:

Light fireworks outdoors, far from people and buildings

Keep a hose or bucket of water nearby

Never relight a dud

Watch the kids around sparklers, which can reach 2,000°F

Comment below with how you are spending the holiday. We would love to see how this community is celebrating.

Address

701 Laurel Street
Menlo Park, CA
94025

Telephone

+16508583300

Website

http://menloparkpoa.com/

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