I want to start with a couple of “Thank You” messages this week.
On Monday, a man walked off from one of our local rest homes and was reported missing. He was seen a couple of kilometres away by a member of the public who was out for a run. After a short conversation, the good Samaritan realised that the man was some way from where he actually wanted to go and was concerned that he was sitting in the heat.
He decided to run back home, got his personal vehicle and a bottle of water for the man and returned to pick him up. He then brought him straight to the Police station where I was able to confirm his identity and take him safely home. A great outcome.
My second thank you is to the Selwyn Centre for inviting me to speak at their morning tea. I enjoyed being able to talk to you about my role.
Following on from my talk at Selwyn Centre, I also wanted to also give you a snapshot of other types of jobs that the team have dealt with in the last week. We regularly attend family harm incidents, and the last week has been no exception. Calls for service ranged from verbal arguments through to serious assaults. Some of the latter resulted in prosecutions. In many cases these were reported by neighbours rather than the people involved themselves – this is something I support as it is often a long slow process for a person to feel able to leave an abusive relationship and the more support and ‘eyes on’ to the situation we have, the more likely we are to reach a positive outcome for the family.
We had several reports of theft – shoplifting and petrol drive offs, plus a few burglaries including a rural one in Fencourt Road. When a quick report was made (and with further community information), we were successful in identifying and locating a person who presented a counterfeit $50 note last week.
Our strategic traffic and highway patrol staff continued to monitor driver behaviour to reduce road trauma. One driver was found to be driving when very much under the influence of drugs. Another car was recorded travelling at 164km/hr in a 100km zone at Karāpiro. When stopped, it transpired that the same driver had been caught doing 145km/hr in 100km zone just last year, so clearly hadn’t learnt his lesson. The risk to himself and other motorists was significant at such speeds. Both incidents resulted in toots of support to the officer from other motorists and the driver’s licence being suspended on the spot.
If you see something that requires our immediate attendance, especially where harm to person or property is happening or imminent, keep on dialling 111. If you discover a crime that has happened with some time delay, call 105.
