Organisation Annual commemoration of police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty Written on Friday, June 13, 2025 On Thursday 12 June, the annual memorial service for Dutch police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty was held in the Garden of Reflection (Tuin van Bezinning). Eighteen-year-old Friso from the Rotterdam location of the Police Academy attended the ceremony as one of the students representing the Netherlands Police Academy: ‘It had quite an impact on me and it was actually rather emotional too’, he says. During the ceremony, all police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty are commemorated. ‘The commemoration had a bigger impact on me than I had expected. It makes you realise even more how much these people gave for society and the police. I am now more aware that I work in a high-risk sector. That my job is different from jobs other people have. We take a step forward in difficult situations, instead of keeping a distance. It did not deter me from working for the police. In fact, it is now even more clear to me why I chose this profession.’ The Garden is a place of calm reflection During the annual memorial ceremony in Warnsveld, it is tradition for students of the Netherlands Police Academy to form a guard of honour. This year, around a hundred students of the location in Rotterdam were allowed to fulfil this role. The Garden was created by the police to honour police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. It is a place of calm reflection on the core values of policing. The monument is not only intended as a place of commemoration, it also serves to as a place to jointly reflect on the raw side of policing. Two new names added Today, two new names were added to the monument: Marc den Toom and Robert-Jan Hartman. Marc died on 30 January 2025 as a result of a traffic accident. The accident occurred when he was riding back to the Buchten police station on his service motorcycle after having conducted a traffic check. Robert-Jan Hartman died in 2014 as a result of an accident during a teambuilding activity. The monument now holds the names of the 170 officers who died as a direct result of the performance of their police duties since 1946. Wreath at Police Academy location in Apeldoorn On Thursday morning, a wreath was laid on behalf of all students at the Police Academy location in Apeldoorn. One of the initiators was Sarah, the Chair of the Student Council: ‘We all feel closely connected to the memorial service in the Garden of Reflection. We wanted to make this connection more visible. It is tradition that the flag is flown at half-mast on this day. By also laying a wreath, we wanted to add more meaning to the commemoration. This way, visitors, students and employees of the Police Academy were made aware of the reason behind it.’