‘It’s all encompassing’: Fallen officer’s daughter trains law enforcement on life after tragedy

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Two years after Ceresco police officer Ross Bartlett died while in the line of duty, his daughter, Tiffany Yant, is keeping his legacy alive.

Yant says when she first learned her dad was killed, it felt like she could not breathe, let alone plan a funeral for 2,000 people.

Code 3 Legacy is her solution to the uncertainty tragedy brings.

It is a training program that provides Line of Duty Death Packets to prepare the families of first responders for what’s next, in the event they die on the job.

Yant says those packets are serving as a lifeline as well as a timeline to guide them; much of it is based on her own experience grappling with Bartlett’s death.

“It’s all encompassing. If you die in the line of duty, your spouse, your parent, whoever grabs this one packet, it has everything, every step they’re going to need,” said Yant. “I have so many police officers that really sit in that training, and they’re like, this could be me, this could be my family.”

During her two-hour-long training, Yant has officers fill out nearly 60% of the packet.

Sixteen pages that include information about how to choose an advocate for your family, and who you would like the news to come from, to more everyday subjects like bank accounts and Netflix passwords.

Many officers in her training tell her that once they have filled it out, they feel a sense of relief.

Yant says that is the purpose, but while working on the packet, she had to relive a lot of trauma that came from losing her dad.

She worked with a grief counselor (later becoming one herself) to ensure that Code 3 Legacy was a true representation of her dad’s legacy.

His legacy, she says, is to serve others.

Yant also named the business after her dad’s Code 3 catering business, which he had run for several years.

In addition to the LODD packets, she provides the agency she works with with operations packets, so they have a resource for handling tragedy.

Yant says resources like these are needed even more in rural communities.

“I share my experience from start to finish; from the moment of notification that my dad had died through the funeral,” said Yant.

“Then, I go through some of the things, like with benefits and the longer-term things, like through police week that first year of your officer being honored.”

The program has already been implemented by the Kearney Police Department, Buffalo County Sheriff’s Office, and St. Paul Police Department; all locations she covered for free.

She has 11 more counties scheduled to take the training in western Nebraska and 5 counties scheduled in eastern Nebraska for June.

Her ultimate goal is to make Code 3 Legacy available for all law enforcement nationwide.

If you know of an agency that could benefit from this training, or if you would like to support the work Yant is doing, you can email her at tiffanycode3@gmail.com.