The Star: December 08, 2016

8 Thursday December 8 2016
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Prioritising what needs to
After more than a year as Canterbury District
Commander, John Price sat down with Gabrielle
Stuart to discuss how the job has been going
IN MORE than an hour spent
with Superintendent John Price,
he can’t have stayed in his seat
longer than five minutes at a
time.
The door was always open and
people regularly popped in –
asking about important issues,
or just to let him know about
their latest achievement.
Then the phone would call.
First an area commander about
something discussed in an earlier
meeting. Then a media query:
Was the closure of Arthur’s Pass
station being considered again in
light of the earthquakes?
Even without outside interruptions,
he was constantly up
and down. First to pick up a copy
of the Constable’s Oath, which
always sat behind his desk lined
up beside his collection of police
hats and pictures of his family.
Then pointing out principles of
policing from the list developed
by Sir Robert Peel in 1829, which
he had hung on his wall: “The
police are the public, and the
public are the police,” he quoted.
There was an email he wanted
to show from a woman saying
thank you after an officer had
gone the extra mile to help her
during a family violence call out.
“I know we’ve got the best police
officers and the best police team
in the country,” he said.
The Canterbury district he is
responsible for runs north almost
to Kaikoura and south past
Waimate – that’s 39 police stations
in total. Today, he planned
to be on the road visiting the
stations in North Canterbury,
something he tries to do regularly
so he can stay in face-to-face
contact with them.
Across the district, there are
872 sworn police officers and 105
other staff – numbers he knows
by heart.
He said his role was as a
guardian, of both his staff and
the community.
The call about Arthur’s Pass
was an example of one of the
toughest aspects of his role
– deciding what to fund and
prioritise.
SERVE AND PROTECT: Superintendent John Price is in charge
of 872 sworn police officers and 105 other staff.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
He said the number of
incidents at the Arthur’s Pass
station over the past year were
single digits, compared with
stations like Darfield, where he
had two staff dealing with more
than 200 incidents. The one
officer who manned the station
travelled a lot and was very
rarely there anyway.
But when he visited to talk to
locals about a leaked proposal
to withdraw it, he said they had
pleaded for it to stay.
“One lady told me she had a
spiritual connection to it,” he
said.
For now, he said the station
was safe, although that could
change in the future.
Clothing Bin
Locations for
Pink Bags
Blue Child Cancer Foundation bins are
available all over CHRISTCHURCH
for pink clothing bags, any used Clothing,
Toys, Bric-a-Brac and anything useable.
New World Northwood
New World Rolleston
Oderings Cashmere
Countdown Moorhouse Ave
Soleares Ave Shops
Parklands Kindy, 20 Chadbury St
SAVEMART NEW BRighTON, hAWKE ST
Beach Rd Tyre & Auto Centre, 91 Beach Rd
Bealey Discounter, Cnr Bealey & Champion St
SAVEMART 472 CRANFORD ST
Springfield Dairy, Abberley Cres
Roll On inn Dairy, 251 Sawyers Arms Rd
Mobil Redwood
Challenge Service Station Blighs Rd
New World halswell
Westfield Riccarton
SAVEMART 94 ShANDS RD
National Bank Carpark, Riccarton
New World, Peer St
Shopping Centre, Staverley St
SAVEMART 45 BATTERSEA ST
Cracroft Dairy, Cashmere Rd
Countdown Beckenham, Colombo St
Thorrington School
Supervalue Lincoln Rd
Landsdowne Play Centre, Landsdowne Tce
You help a lot when you drop pink clothing bags in
one of the above bins. Any used clothing acceptable,
other bags and cartons of clothing acceptable.
If you can’t get to a bin or have large items, phone for
a collector to call ph 349-5896 or 029 272-5519.
Thank-you for helping.
Tackling family violence was
one of his highest priorities,
he said. There were about 200
family harm incidents reported
in Christchurch each week,
adding up to more than 11,000
a year – and those were just the
ones reported.
“It is an area where we know
if we can break the cycle, we can
make a difference. The one place
where as a human you should be
safe is at home, with people who
love you,” he said.
Rising mental health issues
in Canterbury since the
earthquakes were also a big
focus.
He said 20 per cent of police
work was related to mental
illness – in the last year,
Canterbury police dealt with
more than 2000 emergency calls
after attempted suicides.
A lot of his work was in
building relationships with other
agencies, which meant dozens of
meetings every week.
The proof of that was in
colour-coded folders lined up
on his desk, which outlined his
schedule for each day.
The blue “Monday” folder was
packed full.
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