Tasmania Police on Tuesday honoured over 50 police officers for their years of dedication.

Sergeant Michael Maher and Senior Sergeant Michael Gillies were both awarded the National Medal, Second Clasp, in recognition of 35 years' service in Tasmania Police, and Commander Mark Mewis was awarded the Commissioner's Medal, Third Clasp, recognising 40 years' service.

Sergeant Gillies now works at Longford after spending many years with the Launceston criminal investigation branch (CIB).

"I really enjoy the country atmosphere of Longford, especially now that we've built a new police station and we've got quite a complex there now," he said.

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He said his most memorable cases were those involving search and rescue.

"Some of the proudest things I've worked on as a police officer are search and rescue, when we've been able to bring people back to their loved ones," he said.

Commander Mewis, a Launceston native whose first career was in computer programming, said he was humbled to receive recognition for his 40 years of service.

His career has taken him from narcotics cases as a CIB detective in Launceston in the 1980s, to working with an organised crime task force in Canberra. More recently in Hobart, he has begun to revive his computer skills as commander of strategic projects, developing ways to improve Tasmania Police's IT infrastructure.

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He also encouraged youngsters to consider careers in Tasmania Police.

"Seriously - look at policing as a career option. It's exciting, there are so many different career options within policing, whether it be investigation, whether it be marine policing or search and rescue, there are any number of opportunities available."

Commander Mewis, who has spent the past 20 years living either in Canberra, overseas or down south in Hobart, said he still misses his home town of Launceston, where he began his policing career.

"I absolutely miss it, Launceston is a great community ... I still have family in Launceston, all my grandchildren are in Launceston."

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Sergeant Maher, who has worked with the Northern forensics team in Launceston since the early 2000s, said he has seen a great many sad cases in that time.

"We get called out to every major crime incident, we go to all of the big crime scenes and we certainly deal with the worst of the worst, but we deal with them as a team and we get some really good results," he said.

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