A Racine police detective who died in the line of duty 90 years ago will finally be honored for his sacrifice Monday.

A plaque honoring Detective John Harms will be added to the Racine County memorial on Monday, as part of county's annual ceremony for National Police Week at Hantschel Park.

Sgt. Bill Macemon of the Racine Police Department says the situation can finally be fixed.

He's the department's unofficial historian. He says he received a call from Harms' descendants looking for a photo of him and he found Harms listed on a roster, along with his date of death in 1918. But there was no other information about his death.

Macemon found newspaper archives though. They said Harms was driving to an investigation when he was hit by a train while crossing railroad tracks and was killed instantly.

At that time, warning gates for train tracks were controlled by a person.

Macemon says that man on duty apparently didn't lower them for some reason and was arrested by the county coroner.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)