Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Honors 56 Police Officers Who Sacrificed Their Lives in Service to Their Fellow New Yorkers

Governor Kathy Hochul today honored the lives of 56 police officers from eight departments during the state's annual Police Officers Memorial Remembrance Ceremony at the Empire State Plaza in Albany. The names of those male and female officers who sacrificed their lives in service to their fellow New Yorkers have been added to the memorial, which now includes the names of 1,964 police officers from 157 agencies across the State, and six federal law enforcement agencies. The Governor also issued a proclamation designating today, May 5, as Police Memorial Day and directed State landmarks to be illuminated blue the evening of Wednesday, May 6, to remember this year's honorees and in recognition of the service and sacrifice of police officers across the State.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good afternoon everyone. I look out, I have a nice prepared speech and I'll get to that. But I'm always struck by the faces of the people that I look out at, people who wish they were back to their regular lives uninterrupted and that their loved one was still with them. And I look out and I often wish there were far more empty seats, far fewer people who have to be the living heroes, who have suffered immeasurable pain beyond what they ever imagined and yet have the courage to come here to listen to politicians speak.

Probably not your favorite thing for most of you, but I hope you take away a sense of gratitude and appreciation not just for your loved one, but for all of you. For being that support system. For perhaps being the mom and dad who inspired your child. Maybe during the rides in the car, to a ball game, or at the dinner table. You must have passed on your own values to create an individual who's so selfless, so willing to put themselves out there. So few people respond to that call. And I'm looking at the chosen families. Whether it was your own child or a spouse that you chose, you must have seen in that individual, your husband or your wife, someone so special, so exceptional. So out of the ordinary that they would choose a profession with inherent danger, no regard to themselves - what kind of people are these? And you chose one to love and spend your days with and those days have now been cut short. It's not fair to you, you didn't ask for that. But I hope that while you had time together, your lives were enriched enough to carry on and carry on the memory. Or the children who are here today who maybe lost a parent or grandparent. You have been given sadness, grief, but also a resilience that will endure through the ages because you got through this. Whether it's someone that you lost in the line of duty so shockingly sudden - they went off to work and with a kiss goodbye, expecting to come home. Or there was someone that perhaps over literally 25 years of suffering after exposure at 9/11, carried an illness that brought them many years later. But those were viewed as the ones who were able to get away. And indeed, they did not.

So I stand here as a Governor, humbled to be here every single year. And I'll always be here because this is a place of profound respect for all of you. And I'll say this as well, out of respect for our Assemblymember and our Senator who are very candid as well. I want to thank our leaders here. I want to thank Commissioner Rosado. I want to thank Janette Moy for all she does, all of our law enforcement leaders, including our own Superintendent of Police Superintendent James. Tom DiNapoli, our Comptroller, our Attorney General Tish James, as I mentioned Senator Jessica Scarella-Spanton and the Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato and all those who are here today.

I'm going to just say this because this is in my heart. This profession does not get the respect that perhaps it once did and I mean to change that. You're still enduring horrific conditions, sometimes frightening, the unknown. Sometimes you're out in the streets and you feel like you're not getting respect because the people don't appreciate what you're doing. I am here to tell you they do.

Yes, they will be outliers and please do not let that be viewed as the sentiment, the feeling, the love of this entire community, because I speak on behalf of 20 million grateful New Yorkers who wish at the bottom of my heart you were not sitting here today but you are. You had the courage to get out of bed, drive some distance. Stand here, sit here all because you love so deeply. And I'm in awe of that, I am in awe of the depth of love you have for your person you lost. And I wish as a mom and a grandma and a wife, that I could take that pain away from you. If there's anything I could ever do that would give me such joy to relieve you one minute of pain. But I cannot promise that to you, but I can promise you this. Your loved one is not just remembered forever on this granite wall, a sign of strength but also in the hearts of all those they touched.

And you may never know the stories of someone that they might have rescued or given comfort to. A kind word they gave in a time of despair. You're not going to know the stories of people that were touched by your love but they're real. And all the people out here are still wearing a uniform. You know what you're talking about, you don't come home and talk about your families because you need to have a separation. But we see you, we hear you, we know what you do out there. And we are so damn lucky, so damn lucky to have every single one of you who went through the rigors of training, took that oath of office and have the camaraderie of a very unique calling and it is indeed a calling. And I want to thank our clergy for reminding us of the presence of God in our lives. And God is there for many reasons, but especially in our time of mourning to extend comfort to us mere mortals here on earth until that time when we are reunited with loved ones.

I want to thank you. Thank you for showing up today, thank you for sharing your loved one with all of us. Thank you for the life you're going to continue to lead in their name and their memory. Because grief is powerful, but grief is the price you pay for love. That is a sign that you love someone so deeply. And ultimately, that is the gift. That is a gift that you are given. So may God bless every single one of you, all of you here today, especially the families. May God bless the great State of New York, and may God bless and keep in his hands, the United States of America safe from harm.

Thank you very much everyone.