Selwyn Times: March 06, 2019
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SELWYN TIMES Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
Wednesday <strong>March</strong> 6 <strong>2019</strong> 19<br />
Our People<br />
Pete Stills<br />
Top cop immersed in the community<br />
CHALLENGES: Senior Sergeant Pete Stills joined the police in<br />
1983 and is in charge of policing in the district.<br />
Senior Sergeant Pete Stills has been a police officer since 1983. During his<br />
time in the force, he has served in many stations across Christchurch and in<br />
Wellington. Anan Zaki talked to the man in charge of policing in the district<br />
Your job in <strong>Selwyn</strong>, did that<br />
throw up a new challenge?<br />
Yes, <strong>Selwyn</strong> offered up a<br />
new challenge, it’s more of a<br />
community-focused way we<br />
police. We still apply a small<br />
town model to an area which<br />
is growing. We have the scope<br />
here to do a lot more complaints<br />
than we did in Hornby, with<br />
the resources and amount of<br />
work. It’s an area where we<br />
can immerse ourselves in the<br />
community a lot more than we<br />
can in metro areas.<br />
How long have you served in<br />
<strong>Selwyn</strong>?<br />
I’ve managed <strong>Selwyn</strong> since the<br />
beginning of 2013. But up until<br />
October 2017, I managed the area<br />
from the Hornby station because<br />
I also had a role at Hornby and<br />
Christchurch South police station<br />
in Beckenham.<br />
Have you moved around at<br />
other stations?<br />
Prior to Hornby I did eight<br />
years at Papanui station, managing<br />
the response staff at Papanui<br />
and New Brighton. Prior to that<br />
I was a shift senior sergeant at<br />
Christchurch metro, prior to<br />
that I was a sergeant at the beat<br />
section at Cathedral Square. And<br />
that was a really good job and I<br />
really enjoyed the position [at Cathedral<br />
Square]. And even prior<br />
to that I did 15 years in various<br />
roles at the old Sydenham station<br />
in Stanley St. I was initially posted<br />
to Wellington Central [after<br />
graduating] and walked the beat<br />
for two years then transferred to<br />
Christchurch in 1985.<br />
Was there much difference<br />
from policing in Christchurch<br />
and your first stint Wellington?<br />
There was actually. Back<br />
then Wellington had a very<br />
limited and almost no suburban<br />
drinking. Wellington suburbs<br />
had prohibition and most of the<br />
nightlife had centred around<br />
the city. So it was an easier place<br />
to police as you didn’t have to<br />
stretch your resources too far<br />
at night because everyone came<br />
in to town. And of course the<br />
physical layout of Wellington<br />
was different to what I was<br />
used to in Christchurch. You<br />
had the hills and the wharf<br />
which added an interesting<br />
dimension. You had the red light<br />
district in Wellington, which<br />
got a lot of policing attention<br />
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particularly at night. And at the<br />
time Christchurch didn’t have<br />
a red light district. So I saw and<br />
learned a lot of things I hadn’t<br />
experienced before.<br />
Over the years you’ve worked<br />
on many cases, are there notable<br />
cases you worked on which<br />
readers might remember?<br />
Probably the biggest one was<br />
a homicide in the early 1990s<br />
where a woman [Gay Oakes]<br />
had poisoned and suffocated her<br />
husband [Doug Gardner] and<br />
buried him in the garden. I was<br />
the officer in charge of that, it<br />
was a missing person inquiry<br />
initially and became a homicide<br />
investigation after we found him.<br />
I charged her with murder and<br />
she was convicted. At the time<br />
it was a very high profile case. It<br />
was quite a difficult case to work<br />
the victim’s family were disappointed<br />
that we didn’t get a result<br />
earlier than we did. But we have a<br />
process to work to, we have to be<br />
evidence-based in everything we<br />
do. And everything we do have to<br />
be founded on good information<br />
and good evidence. We can’t just<br />
act on impulse. But eventually we<br />
got the right result.<br />
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