Fallen officers remembered with help from a local veteran

SHELLEY — Plaques commemorating the Shelley law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty will grace the walls of the Shelley police station.

Three Shelley law enforcement officers have died while serving in the line of duty. The first was killed in 1914. The second died in 1989. And the most recent died from a heart attack in 2018. Plaques bearing their images will hang on the Shelley Police Department walls thanks to donations and the charitable work of local veteran Mike Frost.

Frost runs a nonprofit under the Shelley Supporters of the Arts called Plaques for Heroes. With donated materials, he makes plaques to commemorate military, law enforcement and first responders free of charge.

“We’ve been wanting to find a way to honor our past,” Shelley Police Cheif Rod Mohler said. “It was an honor to work with Mr. Frost on this to make these plaques.”

The three plaques Frost made commemorate Village Marshall Lafayette Hampton, Police Chief James Donald and Srgt. Kent Donald Swanson.

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“He was our first village marshall to ever be recognized as Shelley law enforcement,” Mohler said.

Hampton was shot and killed from the back of his horse while pursuing a group of thieves on November 17, 1914. He had only been on the job for 17 days.

“Our second loss was Chief Jim Miller,” Mohler said. “Chief Miller died in a traffic accident.”

March 2, 1989, Miller was on his day off when he decided to go into the police station to help out a family who had locked their keys in their car. Miller agreed to take them to their home in Idaho Falls to grab a spare set of keys.

“They were almost to the what is now known as the York Exchange and a semi had crossed the center line and struck him head-on,” Mohler said.

Miller had served in law enforcement for 28 years.

“Then our latest was our dear friend Srgt. Kent Swanson,” Mohler said.

Swanson was responding to a call on May 21, 2018, when he suddenly collapsed and died from a heart attack. He’d served for 16 years.

“I have always felt that it is important that we remember our past so we can honor the ones that have been here,” Mohler said. “I just think it’s a great project. And I can’t be more pleased with Mr. Frost’s work.”

Shelley Police Department’s Student Resource Officer Weston Hayman first reached out to Frost after seeing a post on Facebook about the plaques Frost makes.

“I reached out to Mike. Mike said he’d love to do it and started showing us some of the samples and that’s kind of how this whole project got rolling. Mike and I showed the chief and he absolutely loved what we saw,” Hayman said.

Hayman said the final plaques turned out even better than the samples Frost showed him.

“Officer Hayman and I went back and forth, back and forth over the design and stuff like that. And we originally got the stickers to put on the plaques and we didn’t really care for the stickers that we got. So, with the laser engraver, I decided to try and laser engrave them. Five and a half hours a plaque for the engraving,” Frost said.

Along with the commemorative plaques, the Shelley Police Department recently hung photos of all the current law enforcement officers at the Shelley PD. Minus the few who work the night shift and haven’t had their photos taken yet.