RALEIGH — The fountain in front of city hall will give way to a memorial honoring police officers who have died in the line of duty.

The Raleigh Police Memorial Foundation got the city council’s approval this week to design and build the memorial in front of the building on West Hargett Street, across from Nash Square. The group originally had hoped the memorial would be outside the Lightner Center, a proposed tower for police, fire and public safety agencies next door. But uncertainty over that project forced the foundation to look elsewhere.

The city hall location is “excellent,” said Dennis Lane, a retired Raleigh police major and the foundation’s president. “We’re extremely excited.”

Eight Raleigh police officers have been killed in the line of duty since the 1920s, most recently Charles Radford Paul III, who died in 2002 when he lost control of his motorcycle as he was trying to catch up with a speeding car on the Beltline.

Lane said the foundation is now seeking architects and designers interested in submitting proposals for the memorial. When it has a design, the foundation will then begin a public campaign to raise money to build it.

“We wanted to be able to show people where it’s going to be and show them what it looks like,” Lane said. “So hopefully in the next six months, we’ll be starting a capital campaign.”

The memorial will cost an estimated $450,000, and the foundation has a little less than half of that, Lane said.

For more information about the memorial, go to the foundation’s website at www.rpdmemorial.org.

Stradling: 919-829-4739