This week I want to talk a little bit about my role as community liaison officer. Many of you see this column in the paper, but I’m lucky to work in a position that provides a lot of variety day to day.
Senior constable Deb Hann inside the police station. Photo: Aaron Radford.
Work for me on any one day could include assisting with a neighbourhood issue, speaking to a community group, supporting a family harm victim, investigating crimes such as burglary or theft, attending a traffic crash or report of dangerous driving, engaging with government agencies, conducting a beat patrol through town or conducting vehicle stops. Being part of a smaller station, I am also sometimes involved in backing up other officers or conducting event policing or assisting in search warrant execution.
I am part of a prevention team that spans across Waikato West. The prevention team includes school and community officers, Youth Aid officers, other community liaison officers and Rural Support officers. Our team is overseen by a prevention sergeant and senior sergeant. All then fall under an area commander and district commander.
Prevention is as its name suggests all about education and support to try and prevent crime from occurring or continuing. Prevention can take a variety of different forms from beat (foot) patrols on the streets of our towns through to community engagement talks about crime prevention education, especially burglaries and scams or putting support in place around family harm victims or youth offenders.
Having been working in the prevention space for seven years – five at Cambridge – it is something I find very rewarding. It is however just one area of policing and part of the enjoyment of policing as a career comes from the many varied roles that we can pursue. Between Cambridge and Te Awamutu stations, we have several different work groups. These include public safety teams (responding to 111 calls), road policing teams (strategic traffic , highway patrols and commercial vehicle safety), youth aid and criminal investigation branch staff (serious crime). In addition, we have police employees filling the vital role of helping the public via the public counters and providing support to other Police staff.
Youth Aid officer Constable Danica Hibdige with Charlie, 3, and Mischa, 5, Beadle.
If you are interested in finding out more about a career in the New Zealand police, there is plenty of information available for you.
Next week is Fieldays, a big event for our area. If you are attending, please be patient, plan your visit and allow time for travel and parking. Park and ride is a good option. Keep aware of personal security, lock your car, remember where you parked it and keep hold of wallets and cell phones. Every year we get reports of lost property…. and misplaced cars.
