The Capt. David Dorn Foundation has made it easier for some Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office deputies and the department’s police dogs to be seen.
The foundation on Oct. 30 donated 45 Guardian Angel lights for deputies and four Guardian Angel lights for police dogs. Foundation representatives Ann Dorn and Gary Foster said Randy and Debra Morgan donated just more than $3,500 to purchase the lights.
A Guardian Angel light is a shoulder-mounted device, which may be set to produce a flashing white strobe, blue-and-red strobe and a forward-facing light that may be a white or red beam. The light may be seen up to 5 miles, according to the company’s website, guardianangeldevices.com.
Officers attach the lights to their vest with a magnet, and the lights also attach magnetically to a police dog’s vest.
“They are safety lights made for visibility, and visibility saves lives,” said Dorn, who is the wife of the late David Dorn, a retired St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer who was shot and killed at the age of 77 on June 2, 2020, while trying to stop looting at a pawn shop in the 4100 block of Martin Luther King Drive in St. Louis during protests following the death of George Floyd.
“We have done a lot of testing, investigating and researching them (the lights),” she said. “We found they are a great resource for deputies and officers in the community, as well as firefighters.”
Dorn said the foundation, which she created to honor her late husband, had purchased 10 Guardian Angel lights for Sheriff’s Office deputies last month. She said the foundation also donated the lights to officers with the Byrnes Mill, Hillsboro and Festus police departments and deputies with the Iron County Sheriff’s Office.
“We wanted to see if the officers would like them, and if (the lights) would work with their equipment,” she said. “We tested some in Byrnes Mill, and the first night got a message from an officer working a DWI on Hwy. 30. He said the visibility helped him tremendously.”
Deputy Zachary Reed said he received one of the first 10 lights that the foundation donated to deputies.
He said he has used a Guardian Angel light since 2021, when he received one during a training session. He said the battery in the light he received five years ago recently stopped working, and he was happy to receive a replacement.
“I loved my last one,” Reed said. “I was sad that it broke. Most people see the benefits of them. When you are on day shift, you probably won’t use it as often. For night shift, most people see the benefit quickly. They see that your hands are free because you don’t have to hold a flashlight.”
Deputy Anthony Burkard, the Sheriff’s Office master K-9 trainer, said the four smaller lights for the department’s police dogs will be most useful during searches for missing people. He said the Sheriff’s Office has five police dogs – two are bloodhounds, two are utility dogs trained to detect suspected narcotics and another utility dog trained to detect explosive devices.
“We can use the lights to clearly identify where the dogs are at,” Burkard said. “When you are searching for a missing person or kid, you want to see where the dog is at. (The lights) will be a good addition to the K-9 division.”
Reed said officers benefit from having the shoulder-mounted lights when they are working on the side of the road or helping with traffic control.
“The more visible we are, the safer we are,” he said. “When directing traffic, even with the vest on, the strobing light is one more thing to grab someone’s attention to see that someone is there. That moving light catches someone’s attention.
“Most of the time, as law enforcement, our most dangerous time is when we are running traffic or on the roadside. (The light) draws people’s attention, and hopefully, they will give us the space needed to do our jobs.”
Randy Morgan said he and his wife, Debra, donated to the Dorn Foundation because they want officers to have additional safety equipment when they are on duty. He said they also support BackStoppers, and they believe donations to the Dorn Foundation help reduce the number of families that receive support from BackStoppers.
BackStoppers is a Brentwood-based nonprofit that supports families of first responders who are severely injured or die in the line of duty.
“A big thing the Capt. David Dorn Foundation provides is safety equipment, so hopefully an officer’s family does not need BackStoppers,” Randy said.
Randy also said he and Debra were happy that their donation also was used to purchase lights for police dogs.
“We are big supporters of Stray Rescue of St. Louis,” he said. “My wife and I have fostered 166 dogs and puppies over the past four years. It is one of our top passions. When they told us the dogs would get Guardian Angel lights, we were totally on board.”
The Dorn Foundation began donating equipment to first responder agencies in February 2022. Dorn said the goal of the foundation is to purchase items for officers, firefighters and emergency medical service personnel that their agencies cannot afford to supply.
She said Guardian Angel sold the lights to the foundation at a discount. She said the foundation paid $69 per light, which typically sell for about $140.
Dorn said the Guardian Angel light was something she believed officers throughout Jefferson County would benefit from having due to working in areas that do not have a lot of lighting at night.
“I asked different officers about them,” she said. “They said they would love to have them, but they were expensive. I said, ‘Let’s see if we can make it happen.’ This is an evolution to the next step of what we can do. We are always looking for something new to give them.
“A lot of officers get a badge and gun, and the rest of the equipment you have to buy your own. That is money they have to take away from their family, and we are trying to prevent that from happening.”
Dorn said people may donate to the foundation through its website, dornfoundation.com, or the organization’s Facebook page.
The Dorn Foundation will hold a trivia night fundraising event on Feb. 20 at the Meramec Arnold Eagles Hall, 1725 Jeffco Blvd., in Arnold. Dorn said tickets are expected to be available near the end of November.
“Hopefully we will have a huge success with that fundraiser,” she said. “It is our biggest of the year. We are always looking to do more, and we can’t do that without the community’s help.”