This year, Lyn Fleming’s name was read out at Police Remembrance Day services for the first time, among the list of New Zealand officers killed as the result of a criminal act (slain) on duty.

The 62-year-old senior sergeant was killed on New Year’s Day – the first officer from Nelson and the first female on the Police Roll of Honour. Hundreds gathered outside Nelson Central Police Station to hear Fleming’s name called 34th on the list.

Police Commissioner Richard Chambers and Police Minister Mark Mitchell joined Lyn’s Nelson and Tasman colleagues and members of the community for the service and the unveiling of a memorial stone and plaque in Lyn’s memory outside the station.

At the national service at the Royal New Zealand Police College in Porirua, acting deputy commissioners Jill Rogers and Michael Johnson read the Roll of Honour. Those gathered in the college gymnasium and others watching online also remembered the 11 serving members of Police and 123 former members who died over the previous 12 months.

Assistant Commissioner Tusha Penny officiated at the national service and read out a tribute on behalf of Aren Olsen, Lyn Fleming’s son, who also works for Police. It included the following:

“The story of Lyn Fleming, of my mother, is a vast one. It escapes simple description... I’ve chosen just a single word to illustrate as many facets of her character as I can. And that word is giving. In her life, she gave everything to everyone that needed it, her energy, her love, her patience. Most precious of all, her time… In calm or in crisis, she’d be there, somewhere out of the limelight… That’s just how it was. Birds fly, fish swim and Mum’s off being a hero...

“The fact that someone who gave so unreservedly could be taken from us in this way defies all sense of what’s fair, and what’s right… This is the challenge we face now, to ensure that Lyn Fleming’s legacy is filled with the essence of who she was in life, not simply with the circumstances of her death. How she gave, not just how she was taken... Lyn Fleming did the hardest part. She gave.

“She lived an inspirational life that left us all the better for having shared it with her. Now it’s our job to ensure that story and those actions are carried proudly on our shoulders into the future. Time may erode her legacy but together we can ensure it will never erase it.”

Part of the service also included Jill Rogers, Associate Police Minister Casey Costello and federal agent Hayley Hinton, of the Australian Federal Police, laying wreaths at the Memorial Wall, which now has Constable Matt Hunt’s New Zealand Bravery Decoration on his plaque after it was awarded posthumously in December 2024. Matt was shot and killed in June 2020.

The service ended with a lament played by NZ Police Pipe Band pipe major Adam Tonkin followed by recruits from Wing 388 performing the NZ Police haka.