Big force of police arrives at weekend

By Warren Gamble

Sixteen hundred police from around New Zealand begin heading to Auckland this weekend to protect world leaders here for the Apec summit.

The police management says the Apec drain of almost a third of the country's force will be lessened by the cancellation of all leave and training.

But it acknowledges that ongoing inquiries will be put on hold as specialist staff head for their week-long Apec duty.

One case affected is the murder of Tauranga woman Jo-Anne Van Duyvenbooden. Inquiry head Detective Inspector Graham Bell said he could lose up to half his 30-strong team to Apec.

The 1600 officers from outside Auckland will join 800 officers from the Auckland region in the country's biggest security operation. The 20 visiting leaders include United States President Bill Clinton, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and the leaders of Japan and Russia.

Apec police spokeswoman Robyn Orchard said every police district was providing between a quarter and a third of its staff to Apec. Each delegation had been assigned a police protection team. Other officers were assigned to venue searches and security, and to team policing.

Robyn Orchard said the cancellation of leave and training meant police would have enough officers to deal with serious crimes in the regions, but some inquiries would lose specialist staff.

Included in the regional police influx will be about 550 police from the South Island, around 330 from Wellington, 180 from the Bay of Plenty, 160 from the Waikato and 56 from Northland.

The bulk of the police will arrive on Sunday and will have a day-long briefing on Monday before the round-the-clock security operation begins on Tuesday. Police will stay at nine sites including university hostels and inner-city lodges.

The president of the Police Association, Greg O'Connor, said the cancellation of leave and training, and particularly the postponement of court cases, would ease the policing burden for those who remained.

"Obviously if there is a major emergency somewhere there is not going to be much fat left. The reality of it is, if there is a major emergency, you can't take that many cops from towns without affecting the ability to respond."

He said police were keen to play their part in New Zealand's successful hosting of Apec, and the careful planning for the event had been a welcome change by police management.

New Zealand's 10-strong police contingent to East Timor will be among those returning because of Apec, but the frontline officers involved will return to police their home districts.