Amarillo’s Route 66 district honors police officers

Route 66 shield, blue ribbon

The Sixth Street Merchants Association in Amarillo, Texas, last week has added blue ribbons along its Route 66 signs to show support to the city’s police department, according to several media reports.

According to KFDA-TV:

Along with the sign decor, the association also presented Chief of Police Robert Taylor with a plaque of appreciation.

“We’ve been thinking that we really need to appreciate the Amarillo Police Department for all that they do around Amarillo and for 6th Street,” said Ken Spencer, the President of the 6th Street Merchants Association. “They’re always here when we call and need them. So we needed to do something to show our appreciation for them.”

KAMR-TV said 37 of the signs in the area — which essentially is the city’s antique-store district — received the ribbons.

Police Chief Robert Taylor says the appreciation is mutual.
He says, “It feels good, and I’m glad that we have wide support from our community.
Regardless of what people may say out there we truly do have wide support in our community for the police department and we really appreciate it.”

KAMR also began the story with this:

After a lot of incidents involving police nationwide — including some right here on the High Plains — law enforcement say they feel a negative spotlight has been cast over them.

That got my curiosity up. Since most of the criticism of police officers nationwide deal with officer-involved shootings, I looked up the Washington Post’s website that deal with such incidents to see how many there were in the Amarillo region.

In calendar year 2015 so far, I found just one officer-involved shooting in the Amarillo area, and it didn’t even involve Amarillo cops. It involved Randall County sheriff’s deputies last month, and details about the shooting remain murky. Texas Rangers are investigating.

The only other officer-involved shootings in the Texas Panhandle were in Tahoka and Levelland, both which are more than 130 miles south of Amarillo and beyond a station’s typical 50-mile signal strength.

(Image of blue ribbon with Route 66 sign in Amarillo via KFDA screen capture)

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