Spring Garden Township Honors First Police Officer John A. Peters
Officer John A. Peters, Spring Garden Township’s first police officer, will be honored at the Court of Valor and Safekeepers Shrine ceremony; the article recounts the department’s founding and Peters’ service and death.
Officer John A. Peters will be honored at the annual Court of Valor and Safekeepers Shrine ceremony at Prospect Hill Cemetery, where his name will be permanently engraved and three Northern Regional Police officers who died in the line of duty will also be recognized. Appointed Spring Garden Township’s first police officer in 1923 amid rising automobile traffic, Peters — a Spanish-American War veteran who enforced road laws on a motorcycle — served the community for more than a decade despite a serious 1924 trolley collision and notable acts of compassion. He died suddenly at 57 on April 26, 1937, behind the wheel of a fire truck after responding to a brush fire in Violet Hill.