Support the Shield nominee has long family history of law enforcement in Colorado

LOUISVILLE, Colo. (KDVR) — Law enforcement officers nominated for the Support the Shield recognition are everyday citizens. For this Louisville Police Department’s sergeant, it was somebody who is near and dear to his heart.

Louisville PD Patrol Sergeant Benjamin Kurtz comes from a long and historic line of law enforcement service in Colorado. His great great grandfather, Daniel Kurtz, was justice of the peace in Jefferson County in 1871. His mother, Sue Kurtz, was Colorado‘s first female sheriff in 1982. That was in San Juan County.

“I was torn. I wanted to serve, but I didn’t know which direction I should go. I said, ‘God, lead me and point me where you want me to be,’” Kurtz, who lives to serve, said. “I closed my eyes and opened up the Bible and put my finger down, and I looked. It was on Matthew 5:9, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.’”

Kurtz has a loving and supportive family with wife Cori leading the charge along with sons Jason and Derek.

“It’s a hard job. He puts up with a lot of nonsense from a lot of bad people,“ Cori Kurtz said.

Friends know him as Ben but at work at the department he is known as Sergeant Kurtz.

“We have the same variety of calls that we do in any metropolitan area. Maybe a little less frequently, but it still happens,“ Kurtz said.

Police officers day in and day out put themselves at risk. They do it for us. That is why the person who nominated Kurtz, well, knows him pretty well. That would be his wife, Cori.

“Support the Shield officer of the month 2023, FOX31 and Channel 2,“ Cori said as she handed her husband the plaque honoring his service.

Thank you, Sergeant Benjamin Kurtz.