The decorated highway patrolman’s wife, children, mother, father, family and colleagues stopped to remember the officer, nicknamed Ricko, at a service out the front of the Tamworth Police Station – where a permanent memorial stands.

“Whatever your experience … the loss of a husband, a father, a friend, a colleague … the grief is real,” NSW Police chaplain David Reithmuller told the service.

“May the memory of David Rixon inspire us to serve and protect the community.”

Western Region commander Geoff McKechnie stood side-by-side family, friends as well as Senior Constable Rixon’s highway patrol colleagues, and so too the detectives from the homicide squad who led the murder investigation into his death, at the service on Thursday morning.

“It’s important that we recognise Dave, he is a man that died policing his community,” Oxley Acting Superintendent Jeff Budd told The Leader.

“It means a lot to police, and even more to his family that we recognise the day.

“It also stands as a reminder to all the life is precious, and no one is infallible and lives can change at any minute.”

Senior Constable Rixon was gunned down and murdered in Lorraine St, West Tamworth, while carrying out a routine traffic stop on the morning of March 2, 2012.

On Friday, dozens of Senior Constable Rixon’s colleagues and friends will hit the greens for the annual David Rixon Memorial Golf Day at the Tamworth Golf Club.