Police Remembrance Day is being marked in Chifley Local Area Command with a memorial service, beginning at 11am, followed by a morning tea at All Saints’ Cathedral.

Among those invited to attend the service, which is open to the community, are Brian and Barbara Quinn, the parents of Sergeant Paul Quinn, who was killed in the line of duty at Perthville in 1986.

Other guests are Mary-Anne Ford whose father, Senior Constable Clarence Roy Pirie, was killed at Capertee in 1960, and the grandparents of the late Senior Constable Williams Crews, who live in Lithgow.

Senior Constable Crews was shot during a drug raid in Bankstown, in Sydney’s southwest, on September 8, 2010.

The service is being held one day ahead of National Police Remembrance Day to allow members of the community to join with police officers in marking the occasion.

Inspector Colin Cracknell, duty officer with Chifley Local Area Command, said the day holds a special significance for police throughout Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and the Solomon Islands. 

“It is a day for police to pause and honour officers whose lives have been lost while performing their duty as a police officer,” he said.

Inspector Cracknell said Police Remembrance Day is one of the most important days on the police calendar.

“It highlights the tenuous grasp we have on life, and the dangers of the job we do,” he said.

“That we can come to work at 7am, and not make it home at the end of the day,” he said.

Tomorrow’s service begins at 11am, and will be followed by morning tea in t he Cathedral. All are welcome to attend.