When anyone says goodbye to their loved ones to go to work and then don't come home it is beyond sad. Recently, that fate has befallen police officers in Tasmania and Victoria.

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

Login or signup to continue reading

Constable Keith Smith a 57-year-old Tasmanian officer, and a 25-year veteran walked up a quiet rural driveway in North Motton and never made it to the front door of the house on that property. Constable Smith was serving what police described as a routine warrant when he was fatally shot. The randomness of his death is what unsettles most. His task was one many police have done before, and since. A walk up a driveway, a knock on a door.

The shock of his death was sharpened by what happened in Porepunkah, Victoria, in 2025, when two officers were killed and another seriously injured while attending a rural property to serve a warrant. Alleged gunman Dezi Freeman fled into bushland after the incident. In North Motton, there was no prolonged stand-off, no drawn-out escalation, just officers doing their jobs. These events, connected by circumstance, highlight a difficult truth: the most everyday police work can quickly become the most dangerous.

Police serving a routine warrant in Tasmania last week for firearms offences prompted........

© The Examiner