These units which were the embryo of the armed forces in the fledgling Croatian state were lined up by the first Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, three days after their very first review, and on that occasion he told them that being representatives of the new Croatian authorities they had to be determined and resolved in perforing their duties. Tudjman went on to say that citizens should accept them as guardians of the constitutional and legal order.
During September 1990, members of the first Croatian police forces suppressed the rebellion of a part of the Serb population in the region of Banovina, southeast of Zagreb.
Later, members of those units were the nucleus of the Anti-Terrorist Unit set up at Lucko as well as of the special-purpose units set up at Rakitje and military police.
Addressing today's ceremony, Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said that they had been and would be for ever "our permanent inspiration for all we are going to do".
She thanked them for the demonstration of bravery and resoluteness in the defence and creation of Croatia.
Kosor emphasised that the Croatian Homeland Defence War was a just defence war in which Croatians had to defend themselves and their homeland as well as their and their children's future.
She also gave credit to the first Croatian armed police units for Croatia's NATO membership and the country's prospective entry into the European Union.
Kosor said that there was no space for despondency in times of crises just as in the war but that this was the right time for "togetherness which guided us when we created Croatia and all the time during the Homeland Defence War".
The ceremony was also addressed by Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko who said that members of "Prvi Hrvatski Redarstvenik" should be proud of all they had done. He recalled that the first killed victim in the Homeland Defence War, Josip Jovic, was the member of Prvi Hrvatski Redarstvenik.