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Thread ID: 132398 2013-05-16 06:02:00 From the Police Commissioner May 16 2013 WalOne (4202) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1341542 2013-05-16 06:02:00 Success on an international scale
By Peter Marshall,
Police Commissioner



Last weekend we had a welcome opportunity to showcase one of the great success stories of policing in New Zealand to an influential international gathering. The International Association of Women Judges held its Asia-Pacific regional conference in Auckland, and on the agenda was the work of our online child abuse organisation OCEANZ - Online Child Exploitation Across NZ.

OCEANZ is a specialist team established in 2009 to work proactively to save children from online exploitation. It represents one of the ways in which New Zealand Police has risen to the challenge of battling crime which transcends national boundaries.

Staff based at Police National Headquarters in Wellington liaise with police overseas, police staff throughout New Zealand and partners such as Customs and the Department of Internal Affairs to track down and arrest child abusers and people possessing child exploitation material. Its work has led to the identification and rescue of many young abuse victims and prosecution of offenders at home and abroad. Some of its results have been stunning.

Serious crime analyst Jo Henderson gave the judges a presentation including a case study on Aaron Ellmers, who last week was given preventative detention with a minimum of 20 years – a great result for OCEANZ and Eastern and Canterbury District staff. Other recent ‘big wins’ include the case of Aaron Laurence, jailed for more than 12 years after an investigation by OCEANZ and Wellington District. Two other prolific paedophiles recently received preventative detention after contact with OCEANZ from overseas - Bradford Pascoe, arrested in Waikato after an alert from Italian police, and William Mortensen, of Nelson, who was jailed last year after contact from the United States.

The fact that all these dangerous offenders pleaded guilty is a tribute to the quality of the investigations, and the invitation to address the judges' conference was a major feather in our cap. This is a challenging area of policing in which such cases represent multiple victims, but also young people rescued from sexual predators – and what could be more important than that?

In the light of such success, it’s no surprise to see very good news in the latest data from our Citizens' Satisfaction Survey. In April we hit a peak of 87 percent satisfaction with policing services - the highest ever. Well done to all staff.

While we note such success, we must always be mindful of the serious nature of police work. This was never more starkly illustrated than last weekend when four young men died on a South Auckland road after fleeing from police. It was all so unnecessary. Too often such tragedies involve alcohol and an unlicensed driver and could so easily be avoided if they simply pulled over and stopped. It was heartening to see that in at least one incident since then, the driver had learned from the tragedy.

We've carried out at least four reviews of fleeing driver policy in recent years and there’s no intention to change it at this point. The policy contains safeguards and must be observed to the letter. Staff must stay in contact with the communications centre throughout incidents and must stop if the situation becomes dangerous. They are answerable for their actions.

Overseas jurisdictions, notably some Australian states, have a so-called "no pursuits" policy – but this is against a very different legal backdrop, involving compulsory imprisonment for drivers who fail to comply with police.

As the investigation into the tragedy in South Auckland proceeds, two other officers are under scrutiny after Tasering and shooting an offender during a family violence incident at a home near Porirua. When they arrived they first found a woman on the front lawn with serious arm injuries, then on going into the house and going upstairs they found a man in the process of stabbing a second woman. Their actions probably saved her life. The IPCA investigation is under way and that's to be respected. However, I made a point of telephoning the officers to offer support, based on what I’d been told of the incident, and they were appreciative of the gesture.

This incident, traumatic though it was, highlighted the sensible decisions taken in increasing frontline staff’s access to firearms and Tasers for those thankfully few extreme situations in which they're needed.

Back on the road, yesterday I travelled to Waikato, visiting Huntly, Ngaruawahia and Enderley Community Policing Centre before addressing the district management team. It was wonderful to find staff in this very busy district on top form and relishing their work.

As always, stay safe and look after each other.
WalOne (4202)
1341543 2013-05-16 06:07:00 "compulsory imprisonment for drivers who fail to comply with police" - I like the sound of THAT! johcar (6283)
1341544 2013-05-16 07:11:00 Thanks you Wal. interesting as always. tut (12033)
1341545 2013-05-16 07:23:00 Its really good he is supporting the polizei for saving a life in a south Auckland domestic even when the case is going to the polizei complaints ****fest.
It shows he is supporting his troops even to the risk of his job tenure. I am pretty sure he would have made a good wartime general this guy like Freyburg.
prefect (6291)
1341546 2013-05-17 09:10:00 That is all very good Mr Marshall, but don’t forget the other side of the coin.

HERE (www.stuff.co.nz)

And whilst I congratulate your “Spin Doctors” on their “Warm and Fuzzy” presentation, catching those four Paedophiles with overseas help is hardly outstanding.

How about instead of forming a circle and “Congratulating” each other you do some real work. ;)
B.M. (505)
1341547 2013-05-17 09:23:00 Hardly surprising because of quota recruiting prefect (6291)
1341548 2013-05-17 21:33:00 Hardly surprising because of quota recruiting

Struth, we’ve already got 11,000 odd in the “Uniformed Branch of the IRD” how many do you want? :groan:
B.M. (505)
1341549 2013-05-18 01:57:00 How are we supposed to know how many is right, seems so arbitrary to me. Cicero (40)
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