Brett’s brief was to enlighten his listeners with the state of play relative to policing the Pakuranga area. We were certainly enlightened!

Howick station is part of the Counties Manukau East district, the main HQ of which is based in Ormiston. The district polices about 200,000 people comprising a huge range of ethnicities and a very large youth component. The Howick station has only 5 of the 137 sworn staff in the district, this low number reflecting the relatively small number of incidents requiring attention compared with areas further east and south. Brett made it clear though that it was no cake walk and the work load in each of the sub-areas under his supervision is still huge.

Call-outs on any one day could include any combination of the following:

Burglaries, car break-ins, car conversions, domestic incidents, neighbourly spats, road patrolling, anti-social behaviour (mainly youth-related), public fights, school visits and policing of parking around schools, checking on the homeless etc. etc. etc.

In terms of time spent, Brett reported that 50% of police time on average was used attending ‘Family Harm’ (ex - Domestic Violence) incidents, each incident taking about 90 minutes – more if arrests are made. Averaging about 70 – 80 call-outs per week in 2014, the current number is between 100 and 110.

Encouraging statistics, going against commonly held perceptions, show that since 2017 there has been a 13% drop in burglaries, 24% in car conversions and 28% in car break-ins reflecting, in Brett’s view the public awareness campaigns conducted in recent times. Also encouraging is the impact of Family Harm workers who are being trusted more and more to find workable outcomes in homes, and the impact of special programmes in partnership with the Salvation Army to reduce recidivism among released prisoners.

Most hearing Brett’s talk were probably quite stunned to know that there are quite a few ‘homeless’ (mainly by choice) people and patched gang members living in the Pakuranga area – lack of a gang- base locally means the latter are less visible.

Drug issues were touched on but Brett gave the impression that, while they were always there, they were not showing great signs of increase.

With a clear love of his vocation and a heart to be more than an enforcer – in fact more a social worker – Brett impressed us with his down-to-earth approach and his humanity.  The area is in good hands.