DURHAM — Duke Chapel was the setting today for a memorial service for six North Carolina peace officers who lost their lives in the line of duty.

The six died in the year since the last such service, three of them losing their lives from March through April of this year.

A colorguard from the Durham Police Department lined the steps to the chapel, and the service was attended by officers from across the state. From the smallest local departments to departments from large cities, the representatives were proud to be on hand to pay tribute to the fallen officers and their families.

Richard Moore, secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety, told the mourners that such a memorial service can be painful but that it also affords the opportunity to remember the good times with which the officers will be associated.

In one particularly poignant assemblage, the commander of the North Carolina Highway Patrol, the chief of the Enfield Police Department and the Warren County Sheriff sat next to each other in one pew.

Each lost an officer since March.