Wellington boffins could have spoken to us

I grew up in Te Awamutu. Our township was my playground, knocking about with mates, riding bikes and playing cricket and rugby in vacant lots. As an adult, I’ve also spent time living in Cambridge,…

This month Neighbourhood Support is focusing on spreading a little joy through random acts of kindness. It’s an interesting concept that does make our community a better place and costs nothing. An example is letting…

Te Awamutu youngsters soaked up some of the atmosphere last week at a promotion event in Hamilton for next year’s football World Cup. The women’s tournament will be held in Australia and New Zealand and…

This week was Neighbourhood Supports scam awareness week. Scam emails or phishing is a common problem and very tricky to police. Essentially most phishing is generated overseas and not subject to New Zealand law as…

Over the last few weeks I have noticed a worrying trend that I fear will grow during the school holidays. Youths have been congregating in public areas with cheap plastic BB pistols shooting each other,…

Last week I wrote about the partnership the police has with the Community Patrol. This week I would like to expand on that with a good work story. Last Thursday night our patrollers were patrolling…

The roles of Waipā’s two community boards in water and dog issues are in the spotlight this week. Te Awamutu Community Board’s submission on the council’s draft Water Supply Bill sent earlier this month referred…

Some of you may know that one of the many “hats” I wear within the police is the role of Police Liaison Officer to the Community Patrol. The Community patrol is an affiliate of Community…

In my last column about Family Violence I am going to talk about economic abuse. Economic Abuse is simply where an abuser makes it almost impossible to leave by controlling the finances. Often this extends…

Continuing on about family harm, this week I am going to expand on minimising behaviour and the use of children as weapons. Minimising behaviour is when a partner will abuse the victim using the previously…