Denver Police Museum honors family of cops for 76 years of service: “It’s a source of real pride but a source of anxiety as well”

By KAREN MORFITT

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    DENVER (KCNC) — Every year since 1947 there has been an O’Neill on the police force in Denver.

“She gave me a big hug and said thank you for being here, thank god you are here,” Mike O’Neill Sr. said, remembering a call.

He says those moments. Are why he spent nearly 40 years with the Denver Police Department.

It was a calling he inherited from his father Tom O’Neill, the first in what would be a long line of cops for the family.

“It’s a source of real pride but a source of anxiety as well,” Mike O’Neill Sr. said.

His brother Tom O’Neill Jr. was also a Denver police officer and now both of their sons are as well.

This year marking 76 years of O’Neills patrolling the streets of Denver.

“I am Mike O’Neill, I’m a sergeant in Denver’s Southwest District 4,” he said.

“I am Brian O’Neill, I am a sergeant in southeast Denver’s District 3,” Brian said.

Both took the oath of an officer because of a desire to serve the community, a feeling that was nurtured around a family dinner table.

“There’s not very many families where you get together on Thanksgiving and my uncle is talking about how he got to escort the pope through mile high stadium and my dad is talking about how he did a motorcade for the vice president to the airport and grandpa is talking about how he was hanging out with Elvis Presley and Jerry Kennedy,” Brian O’Neill said.

While hearing those stories, they say, were exciting, seeing the joy that helping others brought to their father and grandfather was the real inspiration.

“Someone is always going to call 911 and we are always going to go,” Mike O’Neill Jr. said. “That’s the bottom line and that’s what we signed up for.”

Through all the changes in policy, and despite a shift in feelings toward the police by some, they remain more committed to the community than ever.

“A lot of things have changed in society, a lot of things have changed in policing over the last 10 years, I think policing has changed more in ten years then the last 60 years combined, its just a matter of adapting to those changes,” Brian O’Neill said.

Each of them now have their own children and their own stories now shared across the table, there’s a good chance a new generation of O’Neills wearing a badge is already in the making.

“Who wants to be a cop? Mike O’Neill Sr. asked, surrounded by his grandkids, one of the youngest raising her hand, “oh good,” he laughed.

“I think probably quicker to see them be firefighters,” Mike O’Neill Jr. said to Brian ,”then it would be cops.” They both laughed.

The family was recognized as National Police Week and also recieved a proclamation from the city for their service.

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