Police Remembrance Day is an opportunity to honour and remember those who served and sacrificed more than anyone ever should on an ordinary day on the job.
In the years of working for government, it was normal for Tricia to carry an identification card. It was flashed at the security guards, swiped in the lifts to access building floors and presented to open the doors.
If she left the card at home accidentally, it was more inconvenient than anything else.
The same cannot be said for my police badge.
That badge was a part of my identity.
It took a long time for me to get used to not reaching for my police badge to slide into my pocket when I would pick up my wallet and keys each day.
I can still feel the absence of its weight in my back pocket.
Whilst we may leave the police service, the police service never truly leaves us.
It is there in unspoken and unexpected ways.
It is in my dreams each night, in the seat I choose in a room, in the way I hold the steering wheel, in the ways I use my badge number in every day ways.
It is in the sorrow I felt each day as the Inquest into the Wieambilla shootings examined how an ordinary day became the hardest of days, forever remembered for the extraordinary and tragic loss of lives.
Police Remembrance Day falls today.
This year, I am remembering the police I served with who are no longer with us. Their names and faces remain in the hearts and minds of so many.
I honour those who I never met, who served before me and came after me, who paid the ultimate price.
I commend those police who each day continue to slide their badges into their pockets, knowing that coming home again that evening is never guaranteed.
For their service, one and all, we say thank you.
Stay safe,
Randall
Randall Smith
Co-founder
Churchill Education
