Lawrence man riding motorcycle to 50 state capitals
A Lawrence man is riding to every capital city in the country to raise awareness for the law enforcement community. He hopes to raise money and awareness for families of officers who lives are lost on the job. Enlarge video
Riding a motorcycle to every state capital in America seems unfathomable for most, especially in a period of just three years.
But for Lawrence resident Harry Herington - who is the chief executive officer of a multimillion-dollar company - anything is possible.
"I'm sure it makes my shareholders a little bit nervous," said Herington, who took off in the rain Thursday for his seventh state capital, Little Rock, Ark.
Herington, CEO of Olathe-based NIC Inc., isn't trying to fulfill some crazy dream he's always had. Instead, he's making the trips primarily to raise awareness about the dangers that law enforcement officers face and the families that dozens of fallen officers leave behind every year.
"An officer's biggest concern is what happens to my family if something happens to me," said Herington, a former police officer and detective. "I lived with that and I have a lot of friends still in law enforcement."
The business executive is making his trip to Little Rock with two Lawrence police officers, Tracy Russell and Laurence Corder, who are taking time off work to accompany him. Herington said he's received outpourings of support from officers throughout the country.
"I could live off just that emotion that they give back and the thanks," said Herington. "It makes you want to get on the bike and do all 50 (trips) all at once. But, I have a company to run."
Herington is working to raise more than $150,000 during his three-year journey for Concerns of Police Survivors Inc., a non-profit organization that works to help families of officers slain in the line of duty. His company has agreed to donate $75,000 to the organization, also known as COPS.
Dubbed Ride4Cops, Herington takes his mission quite seriously. His bright blue Harley-Davidson motorcycle represents his ties to Kansas University, where he earned a law degree, but also to law enforcement officers, which he calls his "brothers and sisters in blue."
Flags painted on his hog are shown flying at half-staff, in memory of the country's fallen officers. He also carries with him mementos and replica badges he's received from the families of people who've lost their lives and support his mission.
So far, he's put about 5,000 miles on his bike traveling to the capital cities in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, Illinois and Indiana.
He's already thought through having to ship his bike to Hawaii, to visit Honolulu. And to get to Juneau, Alaska, he'll have to make a lengthy trip through Canada. He’s planning that for next July.
Herington’s progress can be tracked on a Web site developed by his employees, ride4cops.com, where a GPS device tracks his movement on a map.
In 26 of the state capitals, Herington has offices for his business, a government Web site management and eGovernment company that helps government agencies offer different services to taxpayers online. The trips also give him a chance to check in on his 600 employees based in capital cities across the country.
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puddleglum (anonymous) says…
if more people did more nice things for other people all the time, this would be a much better world.
Lynn731 (anonymous) says…
Awesome, nice to know someone cares that much! Thank you, Lynn
blue73harley (anonymous) says…
Just another reason to like blue Harleys!
Best wishes, Mr. Herington.
lawrenceguy40 (anonymous) says…
Nice bike, nice trip! Pity it is for such a bogus cause. LE cause more suffering to ordinary folks than all those they claim to protect us from.
loverofdogs (anonymous) says…
lawrenceguy40 must have had some experience in meeting 'LE." Too bad there is so little compassion for helping 'LE" today. COPS is a great program to help the families of those who have given their lives while trying to serve and enforce the laws that we have passed. Lawrence PD and Douglas County Sheriff dept are top notch people. Nothing bogus about COPS.
smitty (anonymous) says…
In Lawrence, he is riding for three officers the latest one being in 1931.
In Memoriam
A Tribute to Our Fallen Officers
Officer Allen Moore
The first Lawrence Police officer known to die in the line of duty was Officer Allen Moore, who died from a gunshot from his own weapon in the early morning hours of May 22, 1901. The incident precipitating his death occurred at the Union Pacific train deport in North Lawrence. A plaque honoring the memory of Officer Allen Moore was dedicated on May 22, 1998, and hangs in the Union Pacific Depot, now home of the Lawrence Visitor Information Center.
Officer Wilson Pringle
The second Lawrence Police Officer to die in the line of duty was Officer Wilson Pringle. On October 11, 1909, Pringle was shot while investigating a suspect in a robbery, dying five days later. The suspect escaped the scene, but more than a month later he and another individual robbed a bank in Eudora, KS. The suspect who shot Pringle committed suicide when surrounded by law enforcement officers.
Officer Melvin Howe
The third police officer killed in the line of duty was Officer Melvin Howe. Howe was shot and killed on April 24, 1931 by a suspect he and another officer had stopped who was "driving suspicious" and matched the description of a suspect responsible for a robbery in northeast Kansas. This suspect eluded local law enforcement officers but was later captured in Oklahoma and was shot and killed by authorities there during an escape attempt.
http://www.lawrencepolice.org/index.p...
The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Program....
Community Policing Defined
http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/default.asp...
Community policing is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem-solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime.....
cont...
smitty (anonymous) says…
Re LPD and their efforts toward community policing.....the effort to respond to public safety issues has been seriously ramped up in the area of OUIs since the drunk hit and run killing of Rachael Leek which followed an alarmingly high number of drunk traffic or violent incidents in our town. Take a look at the number DUI/OUI/ of arrests for the past two weekends vs the number of arrests listed on the Dg Co sheriff's site.
Our own LPD has stepped up their efforts in these last two weeks. It only took the city commission ordering our city manager to do what our police chief, Olin, could or would not do to get a community issue addressed.
Just as with our Mass St problems....
Oct 28 JW chad longhorn.....
Commissioners ordered City Manager David Corliss to come up with ideas for immediately increasing the frequency of police foot patrols in the downtown area....
We now have at least a temporary enforcement of a public safety issue as the COPS program mission statement declares. It sure appears, again, the city commission ordered the city manager to do the business of our police chief to accomplish action on a community safety issue.
Ride safe.
smitty (anonymous) says…
in my reference to the dg co site I edited out too much
Make the comparison of the oui/dui arrests prior to the hit and run to this past two weeks ends. It's obvious the over worked/under staffed LPD can step up and respond. repetitious but not at the will of our police chief but at the direction of the city commission tow the city manager. A long time coming, this change, a long time in the making.
Thankful for the new blood on the commission and efforts from a few past commissioners to make this a reality.
notwhatyouthink (anonymous) says…
Smitty your an Idiot.
C.O.P.S. stands for Concerns of Police Survivors.
Check out their national web site. http://www.nationalcops.org/
and it has nothing to do with the fallen Lawrence Police Officers. It does have to do with the familes of officers like Deputy Brian S. Etheridge who was just killed. Remember the officer in the Wichita area who was shot in the back and died last month.
Good job Harry and good luck with your efforts.
smitty (anonymous) says…
**Herington is working to raise more than $150,000 during his three-year journey for Concerns of Police Survivors Inc., a non-profit organization that works to help families of officers slain in the line of duty.***
OK COPS in this article is for survivors not slain officers. Or is it?
The dg sheriff's officer that you refer to did not die in the line of duty, either. The info in this article is so off if what you claim is accurate. Mixing a couple of different topics into one without defining either of them isn't my mistake. If what you stae is accurate then this is a prime example of the JW's reporting not to mention small number of "idiots" on the forum who want to play bully games. If you need to criticize try the JW reporter for misquoting or even the people responsible for the info released for this op-ed.
The information on the oui/dui/lpd ramp up after the hit and run of Rachael Leek is accurate. Notwhatyouthink, if you are this concerned over a sheriff's death from a bicycling hit and run , why do you fail in that same empathy and support for a civilian? The double standards need to stop.
I will assume you are still grieving the officer's death as are many of us are grieving Rachael's death.
monkeywrench1969 (anonymous) says…
I think Smitty is smitten with Olin. She has a very strange fixation with him almost to a stalker level.
My assumption with the downtown foot patrol probably has more to do with the article and push for a new panhandling law. after years of bloggers saying they would not go or take their family downtown because of all the begging/panhandling and the economic impact of that said boycott the city is finally listening to since sales tax revenues are down. The only way they listened was by hitting them in the pocket book.
notwhatyouthink (anonymous) says…
Smitty,
Get off your drugs. In this article there is nothing about Leek, the DUI enforcement, or a Douglas County Officer.
The JW is not to blame.
The deputy that I mention is a Sedgwick County officer do the google search you idiot. He was killed buy gunfire.
If you want to rant about the LPD or DUI enforcement go to that story. This is about one guy doing something on a national level for police survivors.
begin60 (anonymous) says…
Not a cop fan, but don't revel in seeing them murdered either. A cop was killed in Seattle over the weekend.
tumbilweed (anonymous) says…
Which state capital cannot be ridden to?
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
smitty (anonymous) says…
My apologies to any officer's survivors that do not know the history of Lawrence's LPD corruption and have found this discussion difficult to read.
•In the United States of America, a blue ribbon is a symbol for remembrance of fallen police officers. The ribbons are displayed by the survivors of fallen police officers and are very symbolic of the ***COPS*** organization, Concerns Of Police Survivors.
This is the same remembrance that COPS does every year for fallen officers. Today this is symbolized by these three in their bike ride. Whether or not the blue ribbons coget tied to the antennae or not is yet to be known.
In Lawrence the first time this remembrance was acknowledged was after the LPD killed Gregg Sevier...
......even though the remembrance for officers that had lost their lives in the line of duty started in 1963, long before Olin found it beneficial to his PR to exploit this valid remembrance..
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/1993/may...
I assumed without fact checking that the remembrance was for a local officer since this is in the local news. I should have known better due to the way the LPD exploited the celebration in past years.
StanTrekell (anonymous) says…
Give 'em highway, Harry!
Save riding,
Stan