Tributes to PC Dave Fields at Care of Police Survivors Service

SOUTH Yorkshire Police has paid tribute to fallen officers at the Care of Police Survivors (COPS) Annual Service of Remembrance this weekend.

Tim Forber, Assistant Chief Constable, attended the service to honour the memory of lost colleagues and meet their families at the National Memorial Arboretum on Sunday 29 July. ACC Forber is pictured alongside Bryn Hughes, whose GMP daughter Nicola was killed on duty. 

ACC Forber said: “It is really important that as a service we come together, both to remember people who have lost their lives in the line of duty but also, most importantly, to support the families that are left behind.”

The service was attended by more than 800 people and events took place all weekend for surviving family members.

Chief officers from all UK forces, the Home Office and staff associations were among those who took time to honour fallen officers and lay wreaths. The West Midlands Police band provided accompanying music.

Before the service, The Blue Knights motorcyclists arrived in procession to pay their respects. They were joined by more than 300 members of the UK Police Unity Tour who had cycled up in convoy from across the UK, raising a record £200,000+ for the charity.

Officers honoured the memory of South Yorkshire’s PC Dave Fields who was killed on 25 December last year in a collision as he responded to an incident. Described as an “exceptional officer”, PC Fields left behind a wife and two young children.

ACC  Forber said: “Whenever an officer dies in the line of duty it is absolutely devastating but the circumstances in which Dave Fields lost his life last year on Christmas day – he was a family man – is just tragic beyond belief. It brings home the sacrifice that police officers make every day when they go out on duty.

“You have to bear in mind that when a police officer loses their life, it’s not just one life that’s lost. The ripple effect that has on their nearest and dearest, but even the broader family, cannot be underestimated. That has such an impact on so many lives. So it is absolutely brilliant work that COPS do to support the immediate and broader family, to help them come to terms with what’s happened and to set up this support system that helps to rebuild shattered lives.”