36 COVER STORY
NEW JERSEY COPS ■ MAY 2014
When Harry Met Pat
Dissolve to Harry Phillips stopping in the midst of his bike
patrol to answer his cell phone.
Cut to Pat talking into his cell phone: Hey “Hep,” I’m getting
together a bunch of guys. We’re going to do a ride to D.C. for
Police Week.
Harry: Pat, that sounds crazy...Count me in.
Harry begins walking south through the Law Enforcement
Memorial. The screen at his back is showing scenes from the
inaugural Unity Tour in 1997. Eighteen brave men look like
they are riding in a wind tunnel. Harry starts talking to the
camera…
I’m Harry Phillips, Executive Director of the Police Unity
Tour. I retired from West Orange when Pat told me I needed
to run the event full time. I rode in 10 tours before femoral
artery bypass put me on the support team full-time. Pat
stopped riding the year before. We have three guys left who
have made every trip.
Cut to Harry standing in front of life-size map of the northeast seaboard. He makes like a weatherman…
Pat drew a basic line from Florham Park to D.C. and that first
year we were riding over mountains and all kinds of…stuff.
It was miserable. We stayed in some hotels that were an
hour away from being a one-hour motel. I was drying
myself with a wash cloth, that’s how bad it was. Twenty-two
were supposed to ride. Eighteen showed up at the start.
Cut to Harry riding his bike into the National Law Enforcement Memorial in D.C., and continuing…
We were doing this to raise awareness for Line of Duty
Deaths. But we were very competitive. Then, once we rode
through that memorial and saw the names on the walls,
everything changed. It wasn’t about you; it was about them.
Nobody could say a word. Now, I’m not a religious guy, but
this is how powerful it was: When we rode past the walls,
you could hear the names on them, saying, “Where have
you been?”
Riding with the stars
Cut to Harry walking through what could be the Museum
of Modern Art. He is showing life-like cardboard cutouts of
some of the Tour’s easy riders. He looks at each on as if to
say hello, then turns to the camera and begins…