The Police Association is taking part in a health and wellbeing research project organised by a New Zealand police inspector turned international policing researcher, Garth den Heyer.
This month the association is supporting Dr den Heyer’s work by distributing his survey, which has an emphasis on exposure to traumatic events, to our members, serving and retired.
The structure of the survey was developed in the United States by the Department of Veterans Affairs which used it to assess soldiers exposed to battle. It was also previously used in New Zealand by the Defence Force in conjunction with Otago University.
Dr den Heyer has tailored the survey to make it relevant to policing.
In his role as an instructor and contributor to various academic institutions in the US and in Britain, he has previously researched policing of riots, the use of Tasers and the policing of minority communities, including the use of iwi liaison officers in New Zealand.
Inside the May issue of Police News we speak with four officers who were at Muriwai the night Cyclone Gabrielle made landfall in February 2023, hear from a former Road Policing assistant commissioner who is alarmed by the Government's approach to speed management and a retired Auckland sergeant has some sage advice for all Kiwi men regardless of age: Get your prostate checked.