Police pay tribute to fallen colleagues

Dozens attended a moving service held at St Faith's. Photo / Ben Fraser

It was a moving service for those who gathered at St Faith's Church to commemorate the police officers killed while carrying out their duties.

Yesterday was Police Remembrance Day, which pays tribute to the 29 police officers who have been killed by criminal acts since the New Zealand Police force was established in 1886.

The day was also an occasion to remember former, retired or serving police officers who died in the past year.

Commemoration services were held across the country, with Bay of Plenty police gathering at St Faith's in Rotorua yesterday morning.

About 50 people, including uniformed police officers, their families and families of those who have died, attended the ceremony, with some shedding tears as a slideshow with the pictures of the fallen officers was shown.

Those remembered included four Bay of Plenty officers killed on duty.

They were traffic officer John Kehoe, who was fatally shot in Whakatane on January 31, 1949, and Sergeant Gilbert Arcus, who fell while attempting to take a person into custody and died in Tauranga Hospital on February 2, 1970. Traffic officer Robin Dudding was shot at Hamurana on April 7, 1986, after being kidnapped at Lake Rotoiti, and Constable Murray Stretch was beaten and died in Mangakino in 1999 as he tried to arrest a youth who had burgled a local store.

As part of the service those who gathered had the opportunity to light a candle for the lives lost, before they observed a minute's silence.

Senior Sergeant Denton Grimes read the names of those in the police community who had died recently before making a brief speech about all the lives lost.

"May they rest in peace and never be forgotten," he said.

An Australasian and South Pacific Police Remembrance Day Service was also held at The Royal New Zealand Police College in Porirua yesterday.