Tributes at Wootton Hall
Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet and Police Federation Chair Sam Dobbs led the service at Wootton Hall. The ceremony included two minutes of silence and the dedication of the Force Ceremonial Standard.
The 23 wartime officers served in the county's former County and Borough police forces. Those organizations preceded today's Northamptonshire Police: according to Wikipedia, Northamptonshire Constabulary, with roots dating to 1840, merged with the county's borough forces on April 1, 1966, to form Northampton and County Constabulary. The force adopted its current name in 1975.
Wikipedia lists the force's headquarters as Wootton Hall Park in Northampton.
Names and poppy crosses
An account of the remembrance ceremony appears in Northamptonshire Police Federation's Chair's Annual Report for 2024/25, published in January 2025. It describes the naming of each of the 23 wartime officers and the placement of poppy crosses in their memory, followed by a second part honoring colleagues who had died during the previous year.
The report also credits the Force Ceremonial Team, commanded by Chief Inspector Sara Louise Parrott, with providing the drill and ceremonial elements of the service.
Remembering officers killed on duty
Northamptonshire officer PC Faizaan Najeeb was also remembered at a national service earlier this year. According to the Police Federation, he was one of eight officers who had died in the previous 12 months whose names were read at the 23rd annual National Police Memorial Day.
That service took place at Belfast's Waterfront Hall on September 27, 2026. It drew 1,500 people and honored more than 4,500 officers who had died on duty, the Federation said.
Najeeb, 24, died on September 26, 2025, a week after a car struck him while he was attending a crash on Station Road in Raunds on September 19, BBC News reported. He joined Northamptonshire Police in May 2022 and worked on the Wellingborough response team. After his death, the force retired his collar number, P1967.
Before Najeeb's death, the force's most recent line-of-duty fatality had been Sgt Simon Lilley, who died in a road incident in 1991, according to BBC News.
