Luke Shadbolt elected as new Association Vice-President
Luke Shadbolt is the Association’s new Vice-President.
Mr Shadbolt, who is a Napier-based Senior Sergeant, replaces Chris Cahill, who recently resigned from the position to pursue career opportunities overseas.
Mr Shadbolt will work alongside the Association’s other Vice-President Stuart Mills and President Greg O’Connor.
Mr O’Connor extended a warm welcome to the new Vice-President who was voted in during the Association’s Special Conference held last month.
Experience
“Mr Shadbolt brings to his new role a wealth of experience and understanding across a broad range of police duties.
“I look forward to working with him to provide the very best representation for Police Association members and advocacy for policing and law and order issues affecting not only police officers, but also the public at large.”
Mr Shadbolt said he was looking forward to the new challenges the position offered and was honoured to take up the role.
“Being involved with the Association for so many years meant it felt like the role was a natural progression for me.
“I think the Association is in a very good place at the moment and I am looking forward to finding my feet in the new role as well as offering new ideas and perspectives that will benefit our members,” he said.
Dedicated service
Mr Shadbolt has been with the Police for 24 years, seven of which were spent in metropolitan Counties-Manukau, four in rural Te Awamutu and 13 in provincial Napier and Hastings.
During this time, he gained 10 years’ experience in General Duties policing, clocked up 14 years CIB experience and he’s spent 12 years on specialist squads (Search and Rescue and Clan Lab).
Being an active Police Association member has also been a big part of his career with Police. He started out as a committee member in Otahuhu, before joining the Te Awamutu committee as an office holder and then moving on to the position of Chairperson in both Napier and Hastings.
Region Director
Prior to his appointment as Vice-President, Mr Shadbolt was Region 4 Director for four years.
During this appointment, Mr Shadbolt represented nine separate committees in the largest geographical region within the Association.
The region also has the highest number of sole charge Police Stations in rural areas from Ruatoria in the north to Levin in the south.
In 2009 Mr Shadbolt was the Police Association’s representative who sat on the Arbitration Panel which determined the outcome of the 2009 pay negotiations.
Mr Shadbolt said he had felt honoured to be part of this process, especially after Police won its pay claim during the Final Offer Arbitration process, which resulted in the Police Association’s final offerbeing favoured over NZ Police’s.
