James J. Binns Receives the 2008 Director’s Community Leadership Award

In a ceremony this past Friday at FBI Headquarters, Director Robert S. Mueller, III recognized the recipients of the 2008 Director’s Community Leadership Award. These leaders, selected by their area FBI field office, have demonstrated outstanding contributions to their local communities through service. The FBI is grateful for the work of each of these individuals and organizations on behalf of their communities.

“Whatever the motivation—an unfilled need, a tragic occurrence, a desire to give back—these are people who make things happen and enlist others in their cause,” said Director Mueller. “They are activists who have earned their prestige through good works.”

James J. Binns, a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, was the recipient of the 2008 award for the Philadelphia Division, for his substantial contributions to charitable institutions and causes in and around Philadelphia. His Hero Cop Plaque program, commemorating police officers who were killed in the line of duty, has received national acclaim. In addition to commemorating 273 deceased Philadelphia police officers, he has dedicated two plaques in Margate City, New Jersey and eight plaques in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Mr. Binns has initiated an identical program to commemorate the lives of 285 Philadelphia firefighters who were killed in the line of duty. As in the case of the police officers, the plaques are placed at the location where the service men and women gave their lives. Mr. Binns hosts an annual golf outing in memory of Police Sergeant Mike Taylor, which raises scholarship funds for St. Joseph’s Prep and Northeast Catholic High school. Mr. Binns is the Chairman of the Hero Thrill Show, which raises money to ensure the education of children of deceased police and firefighters. He chairs a program that replaces Harley Davidson motorcycles of the Philadelphia Highway Patrol and, to date, 65 Philadelphia Police Department Harley Davidson motocycles have been replaced. He has been repeatedly honored by the Fraternal Order of Police and the Police Chief’s Association of Southeast Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. In 2006, he was inducted as a lifetime member.

On March 12, 2008, Mr. Binns accompanied more than 300 FBI employees and other law enforcement officers on a one-mile memorial march from the Philadelphia office to the Comfort Inn parking lot on Columbus Boulevard, where Special Agent Charles Reed was shot and killed in the line of duty. At this site, a plaque sponsored by the Hero Plaque Program was dedicated to SA Reed’s service and sacrifice.

“Law enforcement in general, and the FBI specifically, can only conduct investigations and protect the American people from crime and acts of terrorism if it has the support and understanding of the public that we serve,” said Janice K. Fedarcyk, Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Division. “Mr. Binns is an outstanding and laudable example of how the public and law enforcement can work together, and this award is but one small way that we can recognize and honor his many accomplishments and his years of dedicated and unending community service to his fellow citizens in the Philadelphia area.”