Charles E. Copeland

Kennewick Police Department — Kennewick, WA

Accident

End of Watch April 2, 1933

Age 66

Tour of Duty 20 yrs

The Vigil Panel 66 ›

Gender Male

Incident Service The Sacrifice Department 3

Incident

Chief Copeland succumbed to injuries received three days earlier when he was struck by a train while investigating a call of a suspicious character at the Eastside warehouse at 2000 hours. The train was moving without lights when it struck him, causing major injuries.

Chief Copeland had served as Chief on three separate occasions and had been in law enforcement for 20 years.

In Our Keeping

Permanent identifier: BO-US-WA-7626CB08
Stewardship: Maintained by NeuraWeb Global Inc.
Added to badge.nw: April 2, 2026
Last updated: July 23, 2026

Honored here by 1 sentinel - 1 tribute.

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Tributes

20 years. You could have gone home.
Chief of Police Copeland gave the Kennewick Police Department 20 years. Still answering calls at the end.
Thank you for your service to the Kennewick community. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Chief of Police Copeland.

— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993

Agency

Department Kennewick Police Department

Location Kennewick, WA

Platform Identity kpd.benton.wa.us.gov.nw

Service Record

End of Watch April 2, 1933

Tour of Duty 20 yrs

Age 66

Gender Male

Incident Details

Cause Accident

Chief of Police Charles E. Copeland is one of 10,088 officers lost to accidents in the line of duty across the full record of this memorial — 31% of all 32,508 officers honored here.

In WA, 111 of 339 officers were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 32.7% of this state's fallen. That is 1.7 percentage points above the national rate of 31%.

At Kennewick Police Department, 2 of 4 officers on record were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 50% of this agency's fallen.

Kennewick Police Department

of 4 officers

50% Accident

WA — Statewide

111

of 339 officers

32.7% Accident

Nationwide

10,088

of 32,508 officers

31% Accident