Thin blue line seems thinner

Manawatu guardian chief reporter Alecia Rousseau.

OPINION

The idea of our smaller, rural towns having just one police officer on-hand is perplexing.

I understand resources are tight but what about the residents of these communities? Who are they to depend on if they get into trouble?

I know of one particular officer who is expected to cover an incredibly large area. He works up to 14 hours a day to finally get home and grab just a few hours sleep. But on occasion he doesn't even get that - a call comes in and he's the only policeman in the area.

He has been struggling to get help but the addition of a new constable will take "weeks and weeks" of paperwork. In the meantime he will continue to be the only officer in town.

New health and safety reforms make me question how safe this situation is for these officers. They are tired, overworked and under-resourced.

Police appear to be basing the majority of their staff in the bigger centres, expecting them to work together and cover these smaller towns.

In April last year, Motueka had no one rostered on over four weekends. This place is often busy with tourists and visitors so I found this quite surprising.

It's just sheer luck nothing serious has happened during these times.

And it was just last year that Labour MP Kelvin Davis revealed police numbers in Northland had decreased by 19 per cent.

So it was pleasing to see a new campaign has been launched to attract up to 400 new officers. I must say this recruitment tactic is appealing, even to me. I find comfort in knowing the officers they are trying to attract are ones who genuinely care about others.

But for this to make a real difference, they need to be directing these new officers into places that are short on police.

We need to feel safe and know that in an emergency, police are just a short time away. Currently this is not the case.

I recently phoned police when a family member turned up at my place in the early hours of the morning, after being the victim of a home invasion.

More than an hour later the police finally turned up. Of course the offenders had absconded by then and the two police officers who turned up said they had been caught up with another incident.

How can a victim feel as though they are a priority in this type of situation? Home invasion is a very serious crime and the danger was very real.