Uniforms and phone coverage an issue for rural policing

NEW UNIFORMS and reliable phone coverage are among the support rural police officers require.

That’s according to the results of the Rural Police Enhancement (RPE) Project. According to documents obtained earlier this year under the Official Information Act, NZ Police identified a number of ‘opportunities’ during the project for rural policing to be improved.

Those requests included rural specific training, support for rural policing families, special equipment for rural vehicles (e.g. emergency lighting, trauma kits, and winter tyres), and uniforms suitable for rural conditions.

The current police uniforms are not suitable for wet weather and rural officers are requesting shirts that don’t glow in the dark, the project results state.

New Zealand Police Association president Chris Cahill says members of his organisation have long questioned the practicality of the uniforms they currently wear, with many rural officers requesting more practical trousers.

“However, it remains important that the uniform is practical and serviceable while also maintaining a profes- sional look,” Cahill says.

The RPE was commissioned in March 2021 by Deputy Commissioner Glenn Dunbier to ensure rural policing is both “fit for purpose and responsive to changing rural needs”. It was also designed to improve how NZ Police could enable and equip rural officers.

The results of the RPE were used to influence a new Rural Police Model, which was approved in March 2022.

“The new model has been designed to enhance and support existing practices by clarifying, defining and agreeing our operating model,” says Dunbier. “It is not introducing an entirely new way of working.”

The results of the RPE come after the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) released a review, Policing in Small Communities, which identified 41 recommendations to improve small community and rural policing in November 2021.

The IPCA identified that while officers usu- ally received specialist support for matters like critical incidents and family harm when it was needed, in the more remote locations, “officers were occasionally left to fend for themselves with investigations that specialists should have handled”.

Cahill says the role of a rural police officer has always been challenging, with a wide range of communities covered by rural officers.

However, he says, with the changes in the nature of rural communities, officers are seeing issues previously seen as ‘big city problems’. These include unemployment, drugs and gangs, Cahill explains.