PHENIX CITY, Ala. (WRBL) — The Phenix City Police Department and community paid tribute and remembered Assistant Police Chief Gail Green-Gilliam today.
Green-Gilliam, who died to COVID-19 in June 2020, served the community for more than three decades.
Phenix City Assistant Police Chief George Staudinger expressed the impact that Chief Green-Gilliam had within her local community, saying that she pushed the officers to be their best.
“Chief Green, Gail Green-Gilliam, was with our department for 33 years. She was from here, went to school here, grew up here. Well-known in the community, loved and respected in the community, so that was a huge loss to the department. 33 years, she was the veteran,” said Staudinger.
The remembrance event was a part of Beyond the Call of Duty’s “End of Watch Ride to Remember.” Beyond the Call of Duty is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that aims to remember first responders lost in the line of duty and support the respective communities of the fallen.
The title of the event comes from an End of Watch Call or Last Radio Call, a ceremony where a police dispatcher issues a radio call to a fallen officer that is followed by silence by the officer’s respective department to honor their work.
Founder and chairman of Beyond the Call of Duty, Jagrut Shah said that the ride was a way to connect surviving families and remind them they were not alone in their grief.
“We always remember our fallen within our own communities, but I wanted the survivors to know that their loss was nationwide,” said Shah.
This year, the End of Watch Ride to Remember will cover more than 22,000 miles over the course of 84 days, with a team of 6 riders and a 41-foot trailer that displays the faces of fallen officers from 2020.
The organization will visit 194 departments across the United States and remember more than 300 lives lost and honor the surviving families.
“It’s very important. The officers and their fellow coworkers of Gail are completely in awe that she’s back here and being remembered. We talk about every officer at every single department. The other officers see them and realize that their pain and hurt is not just in their community, it’s across the nation,” said Shah.
More information on the End of Watch Ride to Remember can be found here.
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