A humble Superintendent Brett England is delighted to receive a New Year honour but says he's just one of 11,000 hardworking people in the police force.
The Auckland City operations superintendent has been made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the policeduring his career of nearly 36 years.
Since joining as a cadet in 1971, Mr England has spent 28 years with the armed offenders squad, 10 years with the anti-terror squad, established the Tauranga armed offenders squad and was a founding member of the special tactics group.
During his time with the armed offenders squad Mr England was involved in operations including the arrest of escapers from Paremoremo prison, riots at the jail in 1998 and the capture of thieves who stole art works from the Auckland Art Gallery.
Mr England served as Auckland City's area commander for six years until 2005 - during which time he initiated community partnerships that contributed to a 45 per cent decrease in crime.
He also reinstated Maori Wardens in the downtown area and was responsible for initiatives that helped to reduce youth crime.
Mr England has worked as the operations commander for a number of events including the 1998-2000 America's Cup regatta and visits by dignitaries, including for the Apec leaders' forum.
Outside of work he has been a member of the North Harbour Rugby Union's judiciary committee and is a trustee for Outreach for Disadvantaged Kids, which helps secondary school students.
He said of the New Year honour: "It is very humbling because I'm just one of 11,000 people in the police."
Asked how the honour would change things, Mr England, who is on holiday, said it probably wouldn't. "I'll still turn up to work on Monday."
