Police Unity Tour founder Pat Montuore
welcomes riders, guests and dignitaries
to the opening of the Hall of Remem-
brance at the National Law Enforcement
Museum on Oct. 13.
Hall the Way
Police Unity Tour celebrates its ride to
the opening of the National Law
Enforcement Museum with a grand
ceremony of remembrance
■ BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
■ PHOTOS BY ED CARATTINI JR.
Surging through the doors to the Hall of Remembrance at the
National Law Enforcement Museum on Oct. 13 made all the
miles, all the nights of staying in roadside motels without air
conditioning, all the days riding while wearing garbage bags as
rain coats and all the butt butter and Biofreeze lead to the ul-
timate arrival ceremony. Opening day for the museum culmi-
nated with a reception to present the Hall of Remembrance to
riders and supporters of the Police Unity Tour, which made this
incredible sanctuary possible.
The Hall of Remembrance occupies a sanctimonious corner
of the museum where the primary attraction upon entering is a
wall with pictures of the law enforcement officers lost in the line
of duty during 2017. (This exhibit will update each January to
honor the fallen from the previous year.) To the right is a display
of mementos that loved ones, colleagues and friends have left
across the street at the National Law Enforcement Officers Me-
morial walls – notes to daddy, photos, badges, car doors – and
yes, every officer gets choked up here.
Moving to the right finds a case with the bicycle that founder
Pat Montuore rode in the very first Police Unity Tour in 1997.
44
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ NOVEMBER 2018
The wall inside the Hall of Remembrance, where names and photos of
fallen offi cers from the past year are displayed.
And to the left of the doors are touch screens where visitors can
access bios of all 21,000-plus officers whose names are inscribed
on the memorial wall. Etched on the front door is “Generously
funded by the Police Unity Tour.”
“I don’t know what to say, I’m crying right now,” exclaimed
Montuore, whose vision that began more than 20 years ago ar-
rived with the opening of the museum and the Hall of Remem-
brance. “I’m so humbled by seeing something that’s so beauti-
ful.”
The long-awaited museum unveiling is perhaps the only cer-
emony that could ever eclipse the Unity Tour arrival in Wash-
ington, D.C. during National Police Week each year. The feeling