DETROIT, MI – On Monday, Detroit Police Chief James Craig joined local law enforcement and community partners in kicking off the week-long “Back the Blue” campaign for 2019.

During the event, partner Comerica Bank awarded the Detroit Public Safety Foundation a $25,000 donation at the bank’s Michigan headquarters in downtown Detroit.

The campaign, lead by the Detroit Public Safety Foundation, honors police officers, firefighters, border patrol agents, security guards and others who are sworn to protect the public, and will culminate in “National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day” on Thursday, January 9.

“I can tell you, the support we have is vitally important to building trust between our officers and the citizens we are sworn to protect,” said Chief Craig. “I welcome the new Back the Blue initiative, and hopefully it will send a message to all law enforcement officers and first responders across this region, both our sworn and civilian members, because they put their lives on the line each and every day they go to work, never knowing if they’ll return to their families.”

Also in attendance were Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, Michigan State Police First Lt. Michael Shaw, Wayne State University Police Chief Tony Holt and representatives from more than a dozen local, state and federal agencies and corporate partners.

“We’ve had great success, thanks to our community partners, in ensuring the departments are able to cover these unbudgeted but very important needs,” said Patti Kukula, executive director of the Detroit Public Safety Foundation. “We are honored to help in any way to make our first responders safer, stronger and most importantly feel appreciated. These first responders don’t know us personally, their families don’t know us, but when there’s an issue, they are jumping in to take care of us.”