POLICE Remembrance Day yesterday would have had special significance for officers around Australia as they paused to remember colleagues who have died in the line of duty.
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In Cowra, where the Canobolas Local Area Command ceremony was held, and around the nation, the stabbing attack on two Victorian officers last Tuesday night would have been a raw recollection indeed.
Both officers survived but suffered serious injuries while their young attacker was shot dead. This attack on two officers outside a suburban police station in Melbourne happened in a location where they would have expected to feel safe.
But if we learn anything from the death of 252 men and women in various police jurisdictions it is that their work is inherently dangerous and it will always be impossible to predict and prepare for every life-threatening encounter.
Over the years police have been killed attending domestic violence incidents, when a motorist has been pulled over during a routine traffic operation and in the pursuit of armed criminals.
On the outskirts of Bathurst, at Perthville in 1986, Constable Paul Quinn, a father of two, was shot dead by the driver of a vehicle he had been pursuing. A second officer survived a gunshot wound and returned to work and a long career in the force.
There are also officers who have died as a result of accidents. The first officer killed in NSW, Constable William Havilland, died in a coach in the streets of this city in 1862 when an injured colleague’s gun discharged accidentally.
There is no escaping the fact that for all its rewards a career serving the public as a police officer is a dangerous job.
It is also stressful and can make enormous demands on the private lives of our officers.
We should not forget the police officers who have died in the line of duty but neither should we forget all those who suffer injuries which can affect them and their families for the rest of their lives.