Honour: Wall of Remembrance for Police dogs unveiled

(caption for the above picture: Wall of Remembrance at the New Zealand Police Dog Training Centre in Wellington; picture courtesy - NZ Police)

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Police on March 15 unveiled a new Wall of Remembrance at the New Zealand Police Dog Training Centre commemorating the 24 police dogs who have been killed on duty since 1972.

The 6m long x 2m high rock and panelled wall was unveiled by Deputy Commissioner: District Operations Viv Rickard and Minister of Statistics and Associate Justice Minister the Hon Mark Mitchell who is a former dog handler.

The ceremony was also attended by Deputy Commissioner Resource Management Audrey Sonerson and Deputy Chief Executive Public Affairs Karen Jones, along with other guests including seven retired dog handlers whose dogs have plaques on the wall, and two current dog handlers Senior Constable Bruce Lamb from Christchurch and Constable Josh Robertson from Wellington. Their dogs Gage and Gazza were both fatally shot while on duty and are included on the wall.

Deputy Commissioner Rickard said New Zealand Police dog teams attend more than 40,000 incidents each year.