The launch of a new rural policing strategy aims to better support the 165 officers responsible for maintaining law and order over more than half the country.
NZ Police has launched its Rural Policing Enhancement Project (RPE) to ensure rural policing is fit for purpose, responsive to changing rural needs and to improve support for rural officers.
This includes appointing Inspector Karen Ellis as NZ Police’s first rural manager, with responsibility for providing a rural perspective at governance level at national headquarters.
Currently a senior sergeant and the victims manager with the prevention group, Ellis will be conduit for the flow of information between on-the ground rural police officers in the 12 police districts, and police headquarters.
Inspector Paul Carpenter, the strategic adviser with NZ Police Operations Group, says the model is not broken but can be improved to support the isolation of rural police officers so they can do their job better.
“Tangibly the public may not see anything different but police officers involved will feel better supported and knowing they are backed up whether it be with specialist units or when dealing with an incident or accident,” Carpenter said.
He says there are 104 stations in NZ manned by between one and three officers.
Those 165 officers are responsible for policing half the country’s land mass, an environment that covers forestry, bush, coast, alpine and farming.
“They require different types of policing, they each have a different dynamic.”
Recruiting officers to work in these stations is not usually a challenge, but he says those keen to work there require certain qualities and need to know what the role involves.
“They have to deal with isolation, remoteness so we need to make sure when they go into these rural environments they understand they are often working on their own.
“So they need to be able to build relationships and be good communicators.
“The majority of the time they’re going to be attending incidents on their own.”
This plan is designed to ensure they have adequate support or back up depending on the nature of the incident.
“It’s always been there, but we want to improve it,” Carpenter said.
In 2018 the Independent Police Complaints Authority (IPCA) launched a review into policing of small communities, but Carpenter said before this was released, NZ Police initiated its own review into the topic.
It was prepared jointly and the recommendations were agreed by both entities.
One issue was the pressure and expectations of spouses or partners of rural officers who often have to in deal with the public when police are away from the station.
“We don’t expect partners to be pseudo police officers and we want them to be safe.”
A Rural Police Families Induction Booklet has been prepared for spouses or partners outlining what to expect when based in a rural station, what is expected of them, how to deal with situations and what support is available.
Carpenter said they similarly they want the public to feel safe but to also engage with police and to remove the perception that minor crime is not important.
He said there have been occasions where victims have waited until their local police officer returned from leave to report an incident rather than deal with a reliever.
Carpenter said rural people prefer talking to police officers in person, so a challenge for the strategy is having new ways for the public to communicate with their local police officers, such as using social media.
This means giving users the confidence that when using those avenues, it will reach local police officers.
“We want to make sure rural communities know how to contact police whether the medium is social media or an emergency line, that it will reach their police officer.”
For officers, the initiative also includes regular interaction, including speakers, between rural police so they can learn from the experiences of each other, changes to relief policies so staff can more easily have time off and to extend and upgrade of communication technology to reduce black spot areas.
