PNG Police boss calls for bigger commemorations for lost

3:26 pm on 5 October 2015

Papua New Guinea's Police Commissoner says more needs to be done to remember those who have died in the line of duty.

PNG police on patrol

PNG police on patrol Photo: AFP

Police Remembrance Day was marked last week and Gari Baki says he was disappointed at how the region commemorated the occasion.

Mr Baki says only Australia, New Zealand, PNG and Solomon Islands seem to take the day seriously.

He says up to 2,000 PNG police may have died since the beginning of the Bougainville conflict, and Remembrance Day should be one of the biggest days on the police calendar.

"It's not just a day that you sit down and you remember and you tell them I'm sorry about it. There's got to be a bigger involvement in it. For Papua New Guinea, as of next year onwards, I am going to be involving the members of the families of those officers who have fallen in the line of duty so they feel part of the community rather than feel isolated from it."