A lot of the time on social media when there’s an incident involving the police I see myriad comments from the public about there being no police. For the next few weeks I thought I’d break down the various workgroups based in where I am in Te Awamutu.
On the Beat: Te Awamutu senior constable Ryan Fleming with Constable Richard McDermott at Fieldays. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
This week I’m going to talk about the Frontline staff. Public Safety Teams (PST).
The PST staff comprise of five sections with coverage 24 hours a day. They work a roster of two early shifts, two late shifts, two night shifts followed by four days off (including the sleep day). Typically there are three constables working on a section in Te Awamutu supervised by a sergeant, although this can vary with distractions caused by court duties, training days, leave and backfilling other stations within the Western Waikato area. PST staff are the backbone of the New Zealand Police.
Ryan Fleming
Their role entails attending any emergency job, traffic, historic complaints, burglaries and virtually for any policing activity, they are first on the scene. The attributes required for this role are the ability to adapt and think on your feet, you can see people at their worst and often have no idea how things are going to pan out. For most people who call 111, PST staff will be the first police they see arrive.
Te Awamutu is lucky in that we receive a few new graduates every year to bolster our numbers and from my point of view it is extremely satisfying seeing new and enthusiastic staff arrive, thrive and grow in the job and then move on to the other workgroups within the police.
A new graduate is known as a Probationary Constable and retains this status for two years while they complete workplace assessment to attain permanent appointment.
Policing for the most part is a very rewarding career. It is exciting, fast paced, a great culture (The people absolutely make it) and I can’t think of anything I would rather be doing (other than an astronaut, or a columnist…)
If you are thinking of a career in policing, I urge you to look for more information.
Ryan Fleming
