Mr. Terry Baker

Walter "Thane" Baker

Retired Dallas County Sheriff's Assistant Chief Deputy Terry Baker of Finding the Forgotten does the research on officers killed in the line of duty, but who may not have been recognized.

The Texas Peace Officer's Memorial honors officers who died in the line of duty since Aug. 5, 1823.The Friday ceremonies will honor 35 sheriffs, deputies and jailers whose names have been newly inscribed on the wall, along with the previous 431 names.

Broaddus' name was approved for the memorial last August, thanks to the efforts of Terry Baker.

Walter Thane BakerOlympian

(The following information was compiled by Terry Baker, Retired Assistant Chief Deputy for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, who researches "Finding the Forgotten" - Texas Peace Officers killed in the line of duty.)

Charles Swinney was one of the officers researched by Terry Baker, whose efforts have led to nearly 170 Texas officers' names being added to memorials in Washington, D.C., and Texas.
...
Terry Baker, at the Dallas Police Memorial in downtown Dallas, a place he's come to know well.

Nowadays, when law enforcement officers are killed in the line of duty, their deaths are widely publicized and their names are added to public memorials almost immediately.

That wasn't the case for Texas officers slain in the 19th century or even as late as the 1950s, said researcher Terry Baker, a retired assistant chief deputy for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department.While their sacrifices were preserved in public records and in family lore, the names of officers slain years ago are often absent from memorials that recognize present-day casualties.

"Nobody had been doing anything about these officers' names until the memorials came into existence," said Baker, who lives in Dallas."Now there is this effort to get everyone recognized who deserves to be."

Over the past eight years, Baker's volunteer efforts have led to nearly 170 Texas officers' names being added to law enforcement memorials in Washington, D.C., in Austin and in cities across the state.

Baker, 67, said there are still hundreds of forgotten officers who deserve recognition.

As part of his research, he verifies an officer's death in the line of duty through records, such as death certificates and newspaper clippings, and then submits his findings to the organizations that manage the law enforcement memorials.

His wife, Joyce, has traveled with him across the state to cemeteries, courthouses and police departments for dozens of cases.

One of Baker's research projects was the death of James L. Broome, whose first night as a Dallas County deputy constable was brutally short.
...
After a few months of research, Baker was able to get Broome's name added to three memorials and to assemble a scrapbook for Wilson's family.
...
"It was a real nice thing Mr. Baker did for us.For him to put this all together was thoughtful and generous."

Kevin Foster, a Fort Worth Police Department historian, began working with Baker in 2001 to create the Fort Worth police and fire memorial, which honors officers slain as early as 1870.
...
Baker initially planned to research 50 cases, but he said the letters and phone calls from officers and grateful relatives such as Wilson keep him hard at work.Through his research, the names of 75 police officers have been added to the Dallas Police Memorial in downtown Dallas near City Hall and to those of departments across the state.

"For me, it's the personal satisfaction to know the officers are being honored after giving their lives during service to our country," Baker said.

IN THE KNOW

Since the first recorded death of a U.S. peace officer in New York in 1792, more than 16,500 officers have been killed in the line of duty, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers' Memorial Web site.Researchers such as Terry Baker of Dallas are working to make sure fallen officers' names are added to memorials at the city, state and national level.
...
Terry Baker, a retired assistant chief deputy for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, has been responsible for adding two of the 75 names of fallen police officers to the Dallas Police Memorial.

Terry Baker, a retired assistant chief deputy for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department has made formal recognition for all of the officers possible, and we speak for the people of this county when we say we are grateful to him.

Lamar County isn't the only place where Baker, assisted by his wife, has conducted the difficult research necessary for formal recognition of fallen officers.Since 1997, when he stepped down from the Dallas Sheriff's Department after a 29-year career, Baker has completed research on 187 fallen officers so that their names can be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., the Texas Peace Officers Memorial on the State Capitol grounds and the Lost Lawman Memorial at the Sheriff's Association of Texas headquarters in Austin.
...
We salute our fallen officers as we express our gratitude to Baker for caring enough to help us remember those who gave their lives to make Paris and Lamar County a better place to live.

Email this story.

Print this story.

Montague County Sheriff Bill Keating has requested that Robert L. Broaddus' name be placed on the memorial in Austin based on research done by Terry Baker of Finding the Forgotten.
...
Baker, a retired Dallas County sheriff's deputy, does research on officers who have been killed in the line of duty.

His work, which he said is something akin to working on a criminal case, uncovered these facts about a homicide that happened in the early days of the county:
...
Since retiring in 1994, Baker's research has added nearly 100 names to lawmen's memorials in Texas and Washington.

Keating praised the efforts of Baker in trying to uncover the clues in documenting these deaths.

Terry Baker, a retired assistant chief deputy for the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, discovered Hunter's story while researching law officers killed in action.Burnett said Baker gave him Hunter's information, and he said naming the new facility after Hunter was "an honor."

Baker recovered court documents and old newspaper clippings from that time that detail the circumstances surrounding Hunter's death.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a joke the way that is being treated," said Terry Baker, a retired assistant chief deputy with the Sheriff's Department who researches Texas law enforcement officials who died in the line of duty.

As more nameplates were pried off over the years, he said, "it just got to the point when it just wasn't even honorable to the people who had been killed."

The monument lists officers by name, but it doesn't list the date that the officers died or the agencies that he or she worked for.

No one knows why the bronze-colored nameplates were stolen.Officials said their best guess is that some people wanted the plaques because they had similar names.

Without a complete list, it's hard to replace missing nameplates.
...
Mr. Baker said he used to provide Dallas County with the names of area officers who died in the line of duty, but he stopped when those names were not added to the memorial.

A new or repaired county memorial could have a strong impact on families and friends, like the Dallas Police Memorial, some say.