Here we go again… time to resume full alert as politicians threaten anew to upend the past few years’ positive changes in our firearms regulations.

Policing is highly dynamic and stressful and exposes members to potentially psychologically traumatic events. Equally, it can throw up ethical or moral dilemmas. These too can have a lasting and harmful effect.

Retail crime in New Zealand is big business. Big lost business, the true extent of which is exposed by the very tool that retailers and police are using to combat the losses.

This column is written by a frontline police member. It does not represent the views or policies of the Police Association.

The debate around Government funding of cancer drugs has dominated headlines for months. Police Association member Jason Devlin would likely have died while waiting for the drugs he needed to be covered. Fortunately, he was accepted on to a free trial of a drug that would have cost him more than $100,000 a year.

We often hear that New Zealand is two years behind the rest of the world. While I’m not sure that rings true in 2024 with dynamic, modern communications networks bringing the world into our living rooms, it might well be playing out in police recruiting.