Whakatu police and fire service unite for safety programme

Senior firefighter Allan Brown and Inspector Damin Ormsby, Māori responsive officer for Eastern Region Police, at the launch of the Te Kotuku Tri Lingual Risk Reduction Programme. Photo / Duncan Brown

A special gathering was held to celebrate a unique "tri-lingual" risk reduction programme in the Whakatu community.

On Monday, Hastings senior firefighter Allan Brown introduced the Te Kotuku programme to the Whakatu community, which involved three languages, English, Māori and the language of "common sense".

Both organisations signed a memorandum of understanding between the fire service and police of Whakatu, and were thrilled to introduce the new programme to community members.

Two schools, Te Aratika Charter, Mangateretere, and eight kohanga participated in the celebration.

"They're basically books with QR codes, so they can download the books and puzzles to their tablet or smartphone," Brown said.

"It just means that schools and early childhood centres can not only watch the videos, but they can learn Māori at the same time."

Brown said the reason for the programme was to encourage safety messages into the home so both parents and children can practise the "third language" which was common sense and safety practice.

"It's all about families making good decisions."

Brown said the initiative was something that had been missing in the community for a long time and it was a new way of thinking towards health and safety.

"It's a partnership programme. Quite often we'll see police out on the roads investigating motor vehicle crashes and all sorts of things.

"So what we're basically saying is less crime means fewer fires and fewer fires means less crime, so we thought we would effectively work together because we give value to both organisations."

The safety programme was a new direction for both police and the fire service in Whakatu and Brown said he was hoping other communities would cotton on to the idea.

"Hopefully we can extend it into other communities as well, certainly we want to share the resources we have, share the knowledge, share the our skills and do more for less when you go into partnerships with others in the community.

"I think we have to look at what we've been doing historically, the communities are more diverse now than they once were and we have to diversify how we go about doing our work to meet the needs of a community that is constantly changing."