Master Sergeant Debra Clayton

Master Sergeant Debra Clayton Orlando PD, Florida End of Watch: January 9, 2017 BFTF Representatives That Attended Funeral: James (Jeff) Flammer PO 2109 Retired Laurie Anne McManus PO 2873 5th Precinct Joseph M. Abolafia PO 3243 Retired Eileen Emiddio PO 5535 5th Precinct Thomas Kelly PO 5996 1st Precinct Charles Teufel PO 6308 1st Precinct Eileen shared the following with us about her experience. I was happy to attend the funeral in Orlando this past weekend. As a female cop, I felt drawn to go to another female cop/ working mother's funeral service. It was a Baptist service, which was a first for me. It was an interesting experience. Especially in today's unfortunate period of racial tension in our country. This was predominantly an African American service and we were accepted and treated like family. Beside other Florida Police Departments, and the Brotherhood, I also saw Police Officers from Toronto Canada and a Canadian police dog. This has been my second visit out of state to represent the Brotherhood For The Fallen. It's great to meet with guys and girls from Forth Worth, Chicago, Colorado, and the NYPD when we go. It would be great to see this organization grow.   Tom shared the following with us about his experience: I recently traveled to Orlando, FL with my partner PO Charles Teufel for the funeral for Master Sergeant Debra Clayton. The SCPD Brotherhood For The Fallen provided for our travel expenses for the trip. Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the funeral for Deputy Norman Lewis due to the service's rescheduling. Despite being in Orlando for such a solemn purpose the trip was great. We had the opportunity to meet with dozens of police officers from not only the Orlando PD but officers from departments throughout the country. I was in charge of the donation check which I gave to Orlando PD Deputy Chief Orlando Rolon to present to the family. Chief Rolon said that he would try to email me a picture of the family being presented with the check. The Clayton family was obviously very distraught prior to the commencement of the funeral services and this is why I was unable to present the check myself. I would just like to say what an outstanding job the SCPD chapter of Brotherhood For The Fallen did in orchestrating the arrangements for the Suffolk Police that attended the Orlando trip. They were able to coordinate with other chapters throughout America and enabled us to be in contact with numerous other officers that were attending. We were all there to pay our respects to officers that lost their lives tragically in the performance of their duties but it also afforded us the opportunity to spend time with brother and sister officers from around the nation. The Friday night before Master Sergeant Clayton's service, myself and the other SCPD officers were able to have dinner with numerous other officers from the Chicago PD, Fort Worth Texas PD and Orlando PD as well. We exchanged contact information with each other and hope to remain in touch. I've been on SCPD for over 10 years and spent 5 years on the NYPD prior to that. It's a shame that the best place to run into old friends and colleagues is when you're paying your respects at a funeral for a fellow officer, regardless of the department they work for, who lost their life in the performance of their duty. I was proud to represent the Suffolk County Police Department in Orlando for the funerals for fellow officers. The SCPD chapter for the Brotherhood for the Fallen did an outstanding job in organizing the trip for SCPD officers. I hope that there will never be a need to send SCPD officers to attend the funeral of a fellow officer but in the world we live in, I'm sorry to say that it will be a slim chance of that occurring. If the need in the future arises, I would be proud to represent the SCPD again in showing our department's respects and condolences for the loss of life of a fellow officer who died in the performance of their duty somewhere in America. Thank you Jeff, Joe, Laurie, Eileen, Thomas and Charles for representing us so well. We are proud to have you as members of the Brotherhood For The Fallen, Suffolk County, NY.