JACKSON - The Mississippi Fallen Officers Memorial, more than two decades after the Legislature approved its conception, is expected to be completed in June.

The memorial will stand in the Capitol pedestrian mall near the new state Supreme Court building between George and High streets.

"We hope this will be a draw to the Capitol grounds," said Steve Pickett, Hinds County chief deputy and executive director of the Mississippi Center for Police and Sheriffs. "There are several memorials (around Mississippi) that are particular to each law enforcement agency, but this will be the only one to honor fallen officers statewide."

Its six etched-stone panels will bear the names of more than 200 officers from across the state who lost their lives in the line of duty, including three who died in 2009.

Warren County Deputy Tom Rye Wilson III died in a one-car wreck on U.S. 61 in Vicksburg last year. He was driving to check on an ambulance crew when his patrol car hit water and flipped.

State Trooper Steve Hood of Tupelo, a 26-year veteran of the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, also was killed in 2009 - during a high-speed chase -  after his patrol car ran off the road and struck a tree between the Lee and Prentiss county lines. His death spurred legislation outlawing the use of nitrous oxide in vehicles.

Kosciusko police officer Joseph Anthony Fulton died in November of a heart attack while pursuing a vehicle on County Road 2101.

Ridgeland Police Chief Jimmy Houston tried to resurrect the project during the early 2000s when he was director of the Mississippi Board of Minimum Standards for the Department of Public Safety.

"It was kind of dead in the water," Houston said. "(Legislators) wanted the Department of Public Safety to raise the money. And there's a lot of very

generous people in Mississippi, but we were trying to sell an idea that had no pictures to show what it would look like and no location for it.

"We were selling a dream, and nobody wanted to buy it," he said.

So Houston worked with politicians and others on DPS staff to have the memorial placed near the courthouse, Capitol and state attorney general's office.

The final push came from a bond bill in 2009 supported by Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant that allotted $250,000 to finish the project.

"Each year, when we have a memorial service for law enforcement, we'll have a gathering place," said Bryant, a former law enforcement officer. "We can bring family members (of officers killed in the line of duty) to recognize."