VINITA PARK • When Police Chief Mike Webb lost his battle early last year with pancreatic cancer, his family, his department and his city knew they wanted to send him off with all the ceremony of a proper police funeral.

But they had no idea where to start.

Webb's son, Sean Webb, a captain for Central County Fire and Rescue, knew firefighters have had the Missouri Fire Service Funeral Assistance Team, volunteers who come together to assist with planning a firefighter's funeral. Through them, he learned of the police officer's equivalent, called the Missouri Law Enforcement Funeral Assistance Team.

Sean Webb, along with then alderman (now mayor) James McGee and Police Chief Richard Fairman met with the team, which helped coordinate everything from traffic control plans to buglers and bagpipers.

"They made it happen," Sean Webb said.

Mike Webb's funeral is one of nearly 20 to get assistance from the team in Missouri and Illinois since its founding in March 2008.

Tuesday's burial of Hawk Point Police Chief Paul Jeffrey Fricke marked the third line-of-duty death for the team, which only intervenes to the extent it is requested, said Scott Barthelmass, the founder and president of the nonprofit organization.

Sometimes that means planning everything, and sometimes it's limited to providing references.

"We want to ensure that they are properly recognized and honored and that the family can remember their fallen hero for what the community thought of them," Barthelmass said. "If it's done wrong, it lives with the family forever."

Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota and Michigan have the only statewide funeral assistance teams, Barthelmass said.

The need in Missouri became evident after two officers were slain in the Kirkwood City Hall shooting in 2008, Barthelmass said. It was one of many local departments that do not have a funeral planning team in place. He said that some large agencies, like the St. Louis police and St. Louis County police, take care of their own arrangements.

Nationally, 90 percent of police departments and sheriff's departments are considered small and rural, or have fewer than 50 officers, said Warren County Sheriff Kevin Harrison.

In Missouri, some departments have less than a dozen, he added.

Even though his department has made some preparations for funerals, having the team just a phone call away has proven invaluable in planning Fricke's final journey.

For example, it helped arrange participation of the Patriot Guard, a motorcycle motorcade of volunteers to escort the funeral procession. The team also gave Harrison information about organizations that provide families with benefits.

"They helped me plug all the holes in our funeral assistance plan," Harrison said. "Most agencies don't have a lot of resources to do this. By the end of the day, they're going to put you in touch with someone that's going to make it happen."

University City police Sgt. Mike King's funeral was the first for the team, in November in 2008.

Since then, it has been soliciting donations for a mobile trailer that can carry all of the necessary — and sometimes overlooked accessories for a police funeral.

The group's intervention in Webb's funeral inspired Fairman to become one of the team's approximately 35 volunteers. He told the story of Webb's funeral to a private donor, who recently gave the team $18,000 to build and stock the trailer.

Webb's family gathered Friday with volunteers from the team in Vinita Park to dedicate the trailer in Webb's memory.

"We were running in circles trying to find all that we needed and what we needed to do, and I pray that this trailer will comfort people in our situation," said Donna Webb, Mike Webb's widow.

Graphics on the back of the trailer list the many police organizations that support it. Inside are boxes of tents, blankets, water, clip-on ties, casket flags, flag cords, arm bands, parade flags and bases, a portable public address system, military flags, pallbearer gloves, badge covers and ceremonial weapons for honor guards.

There are even a sewing kit and shoe polish, and stuffed animals for children of the fallen.

Eventually, the team would like to have six stocked trailers around the state to be available to departments in Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

"We don't want any agency to feel like they're lost and can't do it," Fairman said.

More information is available at http://www.mopolicefuneral.org