Hundreds of police supporters marched in a rally in Washington, D.C., on Saturday to voice their support for law enforcement.
The wives of three local police officers organized the "sea of blue" march, which began at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and proceeded to the U.S. Capitol Building.
"We were just so tired of watching our husbands come home day in and day out feeling deflated," organizer Kelly Wince, whose husband is an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department, told the Washington Times. "They just really felt like no one was supporting them anymore."
Organizer Bobbie Padgett told CBS radio station WTOP-FM that the march was to say, "Thank you for protecting me and thank you for being out there. That's what this is all about."
Marchers waved blue flags and banners sporting the slogan "#policelivesmatter."
Speakers at Saturday’s rally included Terrance Gainer, the former sergeant-at-arms of the U.S. Senate, as well the wives of several police officers who were killed in the line of duty.
Gainer told the crowd that "of 40 million encounters police will have with the public, 98.5 percent" of them are "good and great." Gainer called on police to empathize with minority groups, according to CNN.
"We all have something in common," Gainer said. "We can't forget who we are, and lose that in the job we have to do, which sometimes is very, very troubling."
Tensions between police and the public, especially minority communities, are high following several high-profile deaths at the hands of police, such as the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and the choking death of Eric Garner in New York City.
Grand jury decisions to not indict the officers in Brown and Garner’s cases led to large protests across the country calling for police accountability.
Two NYPD officers were ambushed and shot to death in their patrol car in Brooklyn in late December.
Despite widespread concern over police practices, a Reuters poll released Monday found three-quarters of Americans approve of the performance of their local police department, including 56 percent of African Americans.
However, one-third of respondents also said police routinely lie to further their self-interests.
Another poll released Monday found that a strong majority of likely 2016 voters back a recent proposal introduced in Congress for special outside prosecutors to investigate police-involved deaths.
Similar pro-police rallies took place over the weekend in California, Arizona, Washington, and Delaware.