National Police Remembrance Day: Great Southern pauses to remember fallen police

Police who lost their lives in the line of duty were honoured at a National Police Remembrance Day service in Katanning on Thursday. National Police Remembrance Day falls on September 29 each year — the Feast of Saint Michael on the Christian calendar. St Michael is recognised as the patron saint of security forces. Police officers from Katanning, Kojonup and Tambellup gathered at the Police Pools memorial near Katanning for the annual service. There, they honoured the memory of more than 80 WA Police officers and assistants who have died on duty, including several in the Great Southern. Services were held across the country, including at Great Southern Police District headquarters in Albany, where Acting Great Southern Police Superintendent Glenn Spencer addressed the crowd. “I have been in the Great Southern district for nearly three years now and have been a police officer for over 30 years,” Acting. Supt Spencer said. “The thing about being a police officer for that long is the longer you have been in this job, unfortunately, the more names you recognise on the honour roll. “Some you know the name, some you have worked with, some you know personally. “Remembrance Day is a day of reflection and when the honour roll is read aloud shortly, you will hear names of women and men, Aboriginal people and white people, who have lost their lives in service to the community. “What I ask you to do as you listen to the names is consider for every person, there were people who loved them. “Each of these people were daughters or sons, mothers or fathers, sisters or brothers, husbands, wives or partners.”