Roll of Honor
William R. Ricketts
Incident
Interim Chief of Police William Ricketts was killed in a car crash on Struthers Road in Poland Township while he was taking papers to the courthouse. Chief Ricketts had served as the interim chief of the New Middletown Police Department for 6 months and served with the department for 25 years.
Survivors
He is survived by his wife, three children, and eight grandchildren.
In Our Keeping
- Permanent identifier
BO-US-OH-C0296A7F- 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
25 years. You could have gone home.
Interim Police Chief Ricketts gave the New Middletown Police Department 25 years. Still answering calls at the end.
Thank you for your service to the New Middletown community. Gone but never to be forgotten.
Rest easy, Interim Police Chief Ricketts.
— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993
Agency
Service Record
Incident Details
Interim Police Chief William R. Ricketts 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 OH, 318 of 991 officers were lost to accidents in the line of duty — 32.1% of this state's fallen. That is 1.1 percentage points above the national rate of 31%.
National Cause Distribution
How Accident compares to all causes of officer death in the memorial record. William R. Ricketts's cause is highlighted.
How William R. Ricketts Compares
When Accident Deaths Occur
Monthly distribution of Accident deaths across the full memorial record. William R. Ricketts is highlighted in Apr.