Tracee's at home in Houhora

Senior Constable Tracee Knowler's arrival at Houhora last week as the new resident police officer was something of a homecoming.

Tracee was born in Kaitaia, the daughter of Irene (nee Carey), now living at Cable Bay, and the late Darrell Knowler, but spent much of her childhood in Papua New Guinea, where her father worked, returning to Kaitaia to complete her secondary education at Kaitaia College.

"Dad also worked on the road from Houhora to the Cape in the '70s and Mum and us kids used to go up to the Cape for holidays, so the people on the peninsula are just about whanau," she said.

She has certainly been welcomed to Houhora like a longstanding friend, taking grateful delivery of potatoes, feijoas, smoked kingfish, flowers and hot muffins in her first few days there, and children from the nearby school have already begun calling in for tours of the police station.

Tracee has turned her hand to a variety of work, including banking, clerical, courier, lifeguard and nanny, and had a year's OE in the UK and Europe, before she joined the police in 1996. Apart from a brief initial stint in New Plymouth her entire career has been spent in Kaitaia, with five years in uniform and the past 11 with the CIB, and more recently as a detective with the Child Protection Team.

She also had what she described as the privilege of twice being deployed as an adviser and mentor with the Bougainville Community Police in Papua New Guinea, in an area recovering from a brutal civil war, during which time she held the rank of inspector.

Dealing with serious offending as a detective had been fulfilling, she said, not given her recognition of the importance to victims that someone - a judge and jury - believed them, but more fundamentally her belief in fairness, and that everyone, regardless of who they are and what their background might be, is entitled to justice.

Underlying it all though has been a passion for the work of the uniformed officer, and an acknowledgment that trust and respect must be earned rather than expected as of right.

She was looking forward to the new challenges of the very Far North and getting involved in more of a community-style policing than she had encountered while dealing with serious crime, but she wouldn't be cutting her plain clothes links entirely. A few of her files from Kaitaia had made the trip to Houhora with her, and would be worked on while she began the process of getting to know the various communities and groups on the peninsula.

"I'm hoping people will flag me down and say hello," she said.