The SA police community has suffered a crushing loss with the untimely death yesterday of Chief Superintendent Joanne Shanahan APM.
A major crash on Cross Road, Urrbrae, claimed her life and injured her husband, former sworn member and now general counsel to the commissioner, Peter Shanahan.
Joanne was a highly accomplished police officer who had given more than 38 years’ loyal service to policing.
A woman of solid intellect and great application, she had worked in a range of investigational and other fields after beginning her police career in 1981.
Joanne was widely known and respected among Police Association members and enjoyed the recognition of her interstate counterparts.
Her death adds to the pall of grief which already hangs over the Australian police family after the loss of four Victorian officers four days ago.
For many of those who worked with Joanne and/or knew her on a personal level, the pain of losing her, so suddenly and unexpectedly, is certain to be overwhelming.
The association is grateful for the messages of condolence which have come from around the nation.
Interstate police have known not only Joanne through policing but also Peter through his long-time chairmanship of Police Health.
The association is proud to have counted Joanne among its members and is as deeply devastated as her closest friends and colleagues.
Joanne was thoroughly devoted to her family – Peter and their two adult children. The true measure of the value of her presence in their lives will be evident in the decades to come.
It will lie in all the precious family moments of which an unjust death has robbed a close, loving family.
We, of course, extend our greatest sympathy to Peter and the children. But words are of little, if any, value in the face of a loss so profound.
Our aim should be, and is, to provide Peter and the children, and our grieving members, with all the support it is within our power to provide.
“Look after my family,” is the simple but heartfelt request Joanne would have made of us, and we will not fail her.
A further tragedy resulting from the crash was the death of wife and mother Tania McNeill. The association is equally saddened for her immediate and extended families and offers them its deepest sympathy.
