Wednesday’s Law Enforcement Memorial Ceremony was the county’s first since the death of Lt. Lance Price.

Price, who was working for the Florala Police Department at the time of his death, passed away in December of 2016.

He was retired from the Alabama Beverage Control board.

Price died as a result of a massive heart attack, while on duty as a Florala police officer. “He was a true friend,” FPD Chief Sonny Bedsole told his brothers in blue Wednesday. “He was like a brother to me. Lance worked himself to death. He loved his job. He loved his family. I can’t say enough about him. He would arrest people and then console their relatives.”

Bedsole talked about the stress of the job.

“Last year, we had an incident where a police car was stolen,” he said. “It was an honest mistake by an officer. I had a temper tantrum. That night when I laid down in bed my wife grabbed me by the arm and said, ‘Do I need to take you to the ER? Your heart is beating so hard it’s shaking the bed.’”

Bedsole encouraged his fellow officers to take time to de-stress.

“We have to de-stress and let things go,” he said. “I was very angry. After what happened to Lance, we have to do that.”

Bedsole said that Price was helping out like family does.

“We were short-handed,” he said. “The week before he passed, I spoke to him and said, ‘Lance, don’t over do it.’ He said he’d set there and play sergeant and take walk-ins.”

Bedsole said he didn’t realize how stressed he was or how hard his heart was beating.

He said he wanted to pass along a few works to his friends in law enforcement.

“Keep you family close, spend as much time with them as you can. Tomorrow is not promised,” he said.

Also remembered were Sgt. Raymond M. Carlson, Alabama State Troopers (1965); Trooper Brooks D. Lawson, Alabama State Troopers (1969); Trooper Kenyon Lassiter, Alabama State Troopers (1974); Sgt. David Campbell, Andalusia Police Department (1984); Lt. Troy Woodall, Alabama Beverage Control Board (1990); Hubert Anderson Sr., Red Level Police Department (2003); Michael Brandon Lassiter, 2004; William Heath Kelley, Covington County Sheriff’s Office (2014)