Local police officers took part in National Police Remembrance Day last week to remember police officers who have lost their lives while serving their communities.
National Police Remembrance Day memorial services took place throughout the country, honouring 61 SAPOL members and their counterparts from various Australasian police jurisdictions.
A memorial service was held on Friday morning at the Mount Gambier Police Station Wall of Remembrance, presided over by Limestone Coast Local Service Area Superintendent Campbell Hill.
The Mount Gambier ceremony was attended by around 50 people including local government, emergency services representatives and various support agencies, along with family members and friends of fallen SAPOL members.
The service included a police parade, minute of silence, recitations of Amazing Grace and the National Anthem and laying of wreaths.
Superintendent Hill spoke about South Australian police officers Warren Matheson and Matthew Payne who died in 1982 after the vehicle they were pursuing through Adelaide’s south-western suburbs swerved into their police car.
“We recognise the local links that we have got, we have still got family members and 40 years on but the impacts of those deaths of those two officers are still felt every day by family,” he said.
“The relevance to today is that we remember these people more importantly than the job they did, they were family members … and there are people and families that are left behind.
“It’s about as much recognising their sacrifice but recognising as a whole and I suppose recognising with community that inherently the police are people that are willing to put themselves in harm’s way for the greater good of the community.
“Ultimately for our police officers, especially working regionally … police are part of the community, we do an eight-hour workday and then we’re walking up the same shopping centre aisles and we’re driving on the same roads, we share the same concerns and as community members we have got those same issues.”
Supt Hill said he was pleased by the attendance at the local service.
“It’s a Friday morning, it’s the last day before school holidays and there’s a lot of things people have got on, so I think in light of that, just the reflection of people here and the amount of people that have come through … is just really good,” he said.
“The relationships we have in community these days are really nice opportunities for us to recognise the good that occurs in community with the police as well not just those types of crises and that, that we’re always going to.
“We are extremely lucky in South Australia that we have not had fatalities in South Australia for quite a number of years.
“The importance of today is that it’s a busy job, there’s always demand, there’s always something for us to do so it’s nice to actually set aside that time.”
