A police officer standing at a cordon by a wrecked or unstable building, on a dangerous piece of road or near a flooded plain, or being flown into disaster areas, is a reminder of how our members are the ones who must go to and remain in places of risk to protect others.

Northland police teams are under siege – gang and drug activity from outside and staffing problems from within. At least that’s the way it’s feeling to the staff and their supervisors. Ellen Brook reports.

The world is watching the American presidential election with fascination and trepidation.

Sometimes, one event will bring to public attention a slow-burning issue that those directly involved with can clearly see, but which is not obvious to the general population. The seizure in the Far North of nearly 500 kilograms of methamphetamine is a case in point.

Sergeant Jonathan Westrupp has no recollection of diving head first through the glass of a second-storey bathroom window during an armed siege in April. Moments beforehand, however, he knows he made a calculated decision that it was the best option to get away from a wanted man who had just shot and killed a police dog in the hallway of the Porirua house. Ellen Brook reports.

We live in a world where the tasks and activities necessary to achieve goals are narrowly defined, broken down into their component parts – it’s called specialisation, and it makes sense.