Police Training and Graduation

Wayne Guppy, Mayor, Upper Hutt

Healthy working relationships between Local Government elected personnel, Council staff and the NZ Police are very important to the ongoing wellbeing of all our communities. So when I was asked by the NZ Police several months ago to be Patron of a nineteen week course intake of new police trainees from Wing 253, it was an honour to accept personally, and in my elected Civic role as Mayor.

My personal connections with NZ Police go deep as my father, Colin, was very involved with the Police Dog Training School at Trentham. He was also the Patron of a Wing at the Police College in 1991.

I interacted with seventy-six new police officers throughout the nineteen week period, culminating in the formal graduation of the Police College on Thursday 16 October. Listening to Commissioner Howard Broad and College Superintendent Mike Wilson explain the challenges ahead for the new constables and the encouragement for their new career was a reminder of the importance that people such as Mayors must place on police in their community.

The first member of the NZ Police to wear a turban was a graduate of Wing 253 .Staff at the Royal New Zealand Police College worked with PNHQ  staff  and the Sikh Council of NZ to develop a new protocol to support police officers’ rights to observe their religious practices on duty wherever practicable .

At the end of the formal graduation, we all shared the feeling of release as the new recruits threw their caps into the air and then performed a specially arranged Police haka.

In our own City of Upper Hutt we have a very active relationship with NZ Police and are pleased with already established projects:

• Liquor bans for alcohol free areas
• CCTV installation to help enhance community and business safety
• Monthly meetings with police to monitor developments
• Civil defence and emergency management

New initiatives that are underway include those stemming from our Community Safety Plan. We have a “March Against Violence” planned for 24 November which will be marked by me signing a community public pledge against violence. Other prominent citizens will also sign the pledge. The purpose of the march is to demonstrate that the community will not condone violence of any sort.

Another initiative being led by Upper Hutt Police is the CACTUS project based on a similar successful project delivered in Wairoa. It is a combination of physical training, career education, motivational speakers and mentoring. CACTUS is designed to give young people choices, instil discipline and self esteem.

A new Policing Act was passed into law on 1 October 2008 and was recognised at the Wing Graduation.
I look forward to working with all police contacts for the wellbeing of our communities.

Mayor Wayne Guppy
Upper Hutt