{"id":116191,"date":"2025-09-29T14:36:43","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=116191"},"modified":"2025-09-29T14:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T04:37:14","slug":"community-joins-police-remembrance-after-porepunkah-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/community-joins-police-remembrance-after-porepunkah-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Community joins police remembrance after Porepunkah tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>VICTORIAN Police Officers and community members gathered at St Peter\u2019s Anglican Church today to recognise National Police Remembrance Day.<\/p>\n<p>Held annually on 29 September, the day provides an opportunity for police, their families and the public to pay tribute to officers who died while serving in the last year.<\/p>\n<p>Acting Superintendent Jason Templar said it was important to recognise the efforts of police officers, particularly following the deaths of Senior Constable Vadim de Waart\u2011Hottart and Detective Leading Constable Neal Thompson at Porepunkah.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would just like the community to remember that each day, police go out there to do their job, and they face significant risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey do their job without fear or favour, knowing that at any point they may be in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 602px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/09\/police2_53459.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"602\" height=\"451\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The service was held at St Peter\u2019s Anglican Church.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The service included the reading of the honour roll with the names of police officers who have died since 29 September 2024, the Police Ode, and a speech from guest speaker Roland Rocchiccioli.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday is a day where other emergency services along with the community come together to show their support for the police as we remember those who have paid the supreme sacrifice,\u201d Mr Templar said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really important at this time that Victoria Police see support from the community and it\u2019s also a time where we can acknowledge the family and friends and other emergency service partners that really do support us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>National Police Remembrance Day is held concurrently with Victoria\u2019s Blue Ribbon Day, led by the Blue Ribbon Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VICTORIAN Police Officers and community members gathered at St Peter\u2019s Anglican Church today to recognise National Police Remembrance Day. Held annually on 29 September, the day provides an opportunity for police, their families and the public to pay tribute to officers who died while serving in the last year. Acting Superintendent Jason Templar said it [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/community-joins-police-remembrance-after-porepunkah-tragedy\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":211,"featured_media":116194,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-116191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Community joins police remembrance after Porepunkah tragedy - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Community and police unite at St Peter\u2019s Church to mark National Police Remembrance Day, honouring Senior Constable de Waart\u2011Hottart and Neal Thompson.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/community-joins-police-remembrance-after-porepunkah-tragedy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Community joins police remembrance after Porepunkah tragedy - 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