Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor - History

History

The original Medal of Valor was established on June 29, 2000 by President Bill Clinton with his issuance of Executive Order 13161 and was originally called the Presidential Medal of Valor for Public Safety Officers.

This award was later superseded to its current form with the enactment of the Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor Act of 2001 (Pub.L. 107–12, 115 Stat. 20, H.R. 802, May 30, 2001). It is still awarded and presented by the President of the United States but now it is done in the name of the United States Congress as recommended by the eleven-member Medal of Valor Review Board. The Attorney General no longer makes recommendations directly to the President but can provide input into the process via the Department of Justice's National Medal of Valor Office's support of the Review Board. The medal can still be awarded posthumously.

Before the establishment of the Medal of Valor, there were no Federal awards to specifically acknowledge the bravery performed by public safety officers throughout the United States; police and firefighting departments typically award their members medals at a state or local government level. The establishment of the Medal of Valor filled a huge void in the civilian decorations system of the United States, which was all the more timely given the catastrophe in New York three-and-a-half months later on September 11, 2001. (In the end, however, the 442 public safety officers killed at World Trade Center and The Pentagon that day were awarded the 9/11 Heroes Medal of Valor, a similar but separate award.)