Gov. Sam Brownback and Attorney General Derek Schmidt, at right, join law enforcement officers from throughout the state in laying a wreath at a monument outside the Statehouse honoring Kansas peace officers killed in the line of duty. Earlier in the day, Brownback signed a bill into law increasing penalties for crimes committed against law enforcement officers.

Topeka ? A solemn ceremony Friday marked the addition of three more names to the Kansas Law Enforcement Memorial outside the Statehouse, a monument to officers killed in the line of duty.

All three officers were killed in 2016, the most in any single year since the start of the 21st century, Attorney General Derek Schmidt said.

Brad D. Lancaster, a Kansas City, Kan., police detective, was shot and killed May 9 outside the Kansas Speedway. He was 39.

Families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty comfort one another during an annual memorial service honoring fallen peace officers. Three more names were added to a monument outside the Statehouse, bringing the total number of names on that monument to 277.

Gov. Sam Brownback and Attorney General Derek Schmidt, at right, join law enforcement officers from throughout the state in laying a wreath at a monument outside the Statehouse honoring Kansas peace officers killed in the line of duty. Earlier in the day, Brownback signed a bill into law increasing penalties for crimes committed against law enforcement officers.

Two months later, on July 19, Capt. Robert D. Melton of the same department was shot and killed while chasing down a suspect believed to be involved in an earlier drive-by shooting in Kansas City. He was 46.

And on Sept. 11, Master Deputy Brandon Collins of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office died while engaged in a routine traffic stop when his patrol car was struck from behind by a suspected drunken driver. He was 44.

Theirs brought to 277 the total number of fallen peace officers whose names are etched in the monument.

“There is an unbroken continuity of service that spans the last 151 years of sacrifice by the men and women whose names are etched in that stone,” Schmidt said during the ceremony.

Schmidt said the first officer to die in the line of duty whose name is listed on the monument was Felix A. Boller, the town marshal in Ogden, near Fort Riley, who was shot and killed on Dec. 12, 1866.

According to the Kansas State Historical Society’s account, based on newspaper reports from the time, Boller had witnessed some soldiers go into a woman’s home and believed they were about to assault her. One soldier was stationed on the woman’s porch to guard the entrance, and when Boller ordered him to leave, the soldier shot and killed Boller.

Each year, law enforcement officers from throughout Kansas gather at the Statehouse for a memorial service and to lay a wreath at the monument.

This year, though, the ceremony was marked by another event as Gov. Sam Brownback signed a bill into law that includes, among other things, the Law Enforcement Protection Act which enhances penalties for certain crimes committed against law enforcement officers.

That bill had passed both chambers of the Legislature earlier in the week by near-unanimous margins.

“It’s time that we act to protect those who have always protected us,” Brownback said during the memorial service. “