Taupō Police: Busy weekend at bars, cafes but people being responsible

Senior Sergeant Phil Edwards, Taupō Police. Photo / File

Tena koutou katoa. This will be my last media brief as the response group manager here for Taupō and Tūrangi. I'm leaving this role and moving across to the Taupō area road policing manager position.

This is an opportunity for me to widen my policing lens. Senior Sergeant Fane Troy will be coming into the response manager's role on July 1.

Since taking up this role in 2017, I have really enjoyed the challenges that it brings and have enjoyed engaging with the community of both Taupō and Tūrangi, however, I am looking forward to the break.

Over the last seven days here in Taupō we have seen a slight drop in family harm investigations with 17 over the last seven days. The majority of these were reported over the long weekend. Again, can I encourage each of us in the community to look after those close to home.

My guys reported that over the weekend that while there were a large amount of people in Taupō enjoying the cafes, pubs and restaurants, our calls for service did not reflect the amount of people in town. We can take some encouragement from that, that we are being responsible while out in town. Please do continue to look after one another and make sure that your mates get home safely after a night out.

It is awesome to see that we're all out supporting local businesses, long may this continue. If we continue to push on into level 2, can I encourage you all to be mindful of social distancing, remember to check into businesses that you are visiting so that contact tracing can be conducted in the event someone becomes unwell and keep being kind to one another as we navigate down the alert levels.

I finish in the response manager's role at the end of this week and would like to thank the community for its ongoing support of the Taupō and Tūrangi Police. Acting Senior Sergeant Vanessa Meharry will do the media briefings to the end of June at which point Senior Sergeant Troy take up the role until February 2021.

Ngā mihi, Phil.