Western Waikato police officer Dave Hall
Western Waikato police officer Dave Hall says he is humbled after winning a prestigious police fellowship worth up to $80,000.
Waikato West Area prevention manager senior sergeant Hall, whose police jurisdiction goes from Huntly in the north to Te Kūiti in the south, is one of 18 police officers nationally who have been awarded a Woolf Fisher Police Fellowship after an anonymous nomination from a colleague.
Seventy-seven officers were nominated for the fellowship.
Te Awamutu based Hall, who has served in the police for 31 years, was presented with the fellowship at police national headquarters in Wellington on Friday after an invitation from commissioner of police Andrew Coster.
“It was very humbling to be nominated by my peers,” he said.
“Knowing the people in Waikato that have received the award in the past I have some high standards to follow.”
Waikato officer Natalie Douglas received a fellowship in 2023, following Sgt Jarod Walsh in 2019, and Snr Constable Richard Collier in 2018.
The purpose of the fellowship is to promote better and more efficient policing for community benefit.
The fellowship covers travel, study, and associated costs of the fellow and an accompanying partner.
Fellows’ study may include observation of policing practices in overseas jurisdictions, participation in a pre-agreed course of study, or both, and they are required to report back on their learning on their return.
The fellowship offered exciting opportunities to canvass some international approaches to crime, Hall said.
“I am currently looking at a trip to North America.”
Hall will be joined by his wife Tania, a teacher at Paterangi School.
He will get eight weeks paid leave in which to travel and write a report on his findings.
Inspector Will Loughrin have said Hall was a hugely deserving recipient who had worked hard for the organisation and his people, and communities, never asking for anything in return.
Hall is the manager of Te Awamutu Football Club’s Men’s under 23-year-olds team and the Te Awamutu College football co-ordinator.
The Woolf Fisher Trust was founded in 1960 by Fisher and Paykel co-founder and NZ Steel foundation chair Sir Woolf Fisher for the advancement of scientific and general education on New Zealand. Woolf Fisher Police Fellowships were added to the trust’s offering in 2017.
Snr Sgt Dave Hall has won the Woolf Fisher Police Fellowship
