Date of Birth: 11/5/1965
End Of Watch: 2/6/2019

Police Officer Eric Little began his career as a Reserve Officer with the Red Bluff Police Department in 1994. He progressed to working for the Anderson Police Department for 5 years before moving on to the Redding Police Department where he would work until his passing. Eric was a police officer for 25 years.

Eric was an active person with a profound care for other people. I can speak from personal experience, there wasn’t a day at the office where you couldn’t find him with a smile on his face. Anyone who worked with him will attest to his teamwork attitude and his willingness to always lend a hand, help out, or offer advice. Eric had a kind heart. His kindness came out daily when working the beat or being a member of the Neighborhood Police Unit which routinely involved community events and outreach, working with children, and spending time at the Martin Luther King Jr Park kids programs. His career eventually took him to become a School Resource Officer for Shasta High School, an environment he thrived in. What better way to fight crime than to be a great role model to children and stop crime before it ever began. Eric kept the schools safe and always made an effort to engage with the kids and help them grow to be successful adults.

What was most important to Eric in his career was his integrity and his reputation for being a dependable, hard worker, always giving 110%, and being someone his coworkers could rely on.

Despite Eric’s kind, loving soul, he was not without torment. Many of us, likely all of us in this profession can relate, this job has many dark moments. Moments that will weigh heavy on us for the rest of our lives. Police work requires an enormous amount of responsibility. And with enormous responsibility comes enormous stress. As the dark moments, enormous amounts of stress, and the many life-or-death situations officers are faced with regularly came to a head, the weight of the job and the world can feel all too heavy. On February 6th, 2019, Eric took his own life.

Let Eric’s life, and his death, remind you to care for your brother and sister, the same way Eric did for others.