Historical Background
In 1984, following the shooting of Yvonne Fletcher, film director Michael Winner founded the Police Memorial Trust. Initially the Trust concentrated on erecting smaller monuments at the points where officers had died on duty. From the mid-1990s the Trust also lobbied and raised funds for a single, larger scale memorial to commemorate all police officers who had died in the course of their duties. Winner stated that "Memorials to soldiers, sailors and airmen are commonplace, but the police fight a war with no beginning and no end".
Winner donated £500,000 of his own money to the campaign for a national memorial and the remainder of the total cost of £2.3 million was met by a public collection. After a ten-year campaign, Westminster City Council granted planning permission in October 2002.
Read more about this topic: National Police Memorial
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