* Disclaimer. This article includes very brief mentions of violence, murder and assault. Please consider this before reading, and look after yourself! If you, or anybody you care about is experiencing distress, please reach out to one of the sources listed here: https://mentalhealth.org.nz/helplines
Police, Detectives, Sergeants, Constables…
What does it mean to be a police officer in Aotearoa? Have you ever wondered what their lives are like? What the occupation consists of? Is being a police officer just like the shows we watch – from Criminal Minds, to Law and Order, and more recently, Adolescence?
Create Happy journalist Samara O’Connor had the opportunity to interview two individuals with careers in law enforcement.
Have you always wanted to do this job? Did someone inspire you to take this career path?
When I was a kid, I wanted to drive fast cars and arrest baddies – that’s what I’d tell my friends at school. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do. It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to those who knew me growing up as my dad has been a cop my entire life.
He’s now a Detective Senior Sergeant and has been heavily involved in Search and Rescue. My mum’s been a Victim Support volunteer for as long as I can remember and has also worked with vulnerable youth so I’ve always seen her empathy and approach, which became ingrained in me. I’m probably a good mix between dad’s hard-nosed CIB (Criminal Investigation Branch) with mum’s empathy too.
While I’ve always wanted to do it, I did have a bit of a crisis at high school when there was a huge push from my teachers to go to university. That confused me a bit and I ended up taking a terrible job working in retail. My boss was horrible one day and I had a bit of an epiphany - I went home and applied to join the Police that day. Eleven months later I was at police college. I was the youngest on my wing at age 19.
What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
I spend a lot of time in the forest with my partner and dog. I’ve also started brewing beer – I’m a bit of a craft beer connoisseur. I’m a huge fan of rock music, especially Kiwi rock and I make sure to attend three or four concerts a year.
Why did you decide to become a detective in the police?
Having dad as a role model that’s part of the reason. The more core policing I did, the more I realised investigation was my passion. On the frontline, you learn the fundamentals and it is fantastic but I always gravitated towards investigations. I really love putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together.
Is what we see on television programmes like criminal minds etc, realistic?
Not even close! I think people get carried away with all the glam, ‘Gucci’ stuff on TV. In real life you solve serious crimes by talking to people and building relationships. Even with all the new technology and forensics, you can’t underestimate that basic, good policing and it’s that approach that gets results so much of the time.
I prefer true crime documentaries to TV programmes like CSI – I find it’s a lot closer to reality and I love that stuff. I spend a heap of time listening to true crime podcasts.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue a career similar to yours?
If it’s something you really want to do and you think you’re ready for it, then go for it. Don’t spend too much time second-guessing yourself. I talk to so many people who say they want to join – what’s holding you back, I ask them. Most of the time, the only person stopping you is you.
The other really important thing is staying true to yourself. Police is a big organisation, but actually staying true to yourself and your values allows you to be the best cop you can be. I’m passionate about seeing diversity in the Police.
Detective Kennedy Wilson, Bay of Plenty
Does your job take a tole on your mental health?
Without a doubt, but it’s more cumulative. It’s not necessarily one really big event, instead it can chip away at you, a bit like life. But one of the great things about Police is the support that is available.
Working in the Adult Sexual Assault and Child Protection Team as I have, it’s mandatory to go for regular appointments with a psychologist and I’m a huge advocate for therapy and mental health. It’s also about doing really good stuff the rest of the time when you’re not at work – spending time with my partner, walking the dogs, all that good stuff that balances out some of the tougher things you see and hear at work.
Is there a specific case that has affected you as a person, or has stuck with you during your career?
About six or eight weeks after joining CIB, I was part of the team investigating the serious assault of an elderly woman.
That one has stuck with me for many reasons. I’m still the file manager so while it happened at the end of 2021 I’m still in contact with the victim and her family, and the matter is still going through the courts.
It was my first exposure into an investigation of that scale, with multiple scenes, ESR (Environmental Science and Research) scientists and many staff from across the district. It gave me a huge opportunity to learn, but also really reaffirmed what I wanted to do.
What has been the most rewarding part of your job?
As cliché as it sounds, helping people. We don’t get to decide who we help, whether it’s a victim or an offender, but your actions and your decisions have a long-lasting impact on both sides. I want my community to be safer because of the work I do.
What are the requirements you have to meet to become a homicide detective?
In places like Rotorua, we don’t have homicide detectives as such – CIB handles all the serious crime. There are different CIB groups like Adult Sexual Assault, Child Protection Team, and Organised Crime, but when a homicide comes in the groups all pull together.
To become a detective, you need to have done your Diploma in Workplace Assessment which is the on-the-job training you do when you get out of college. That typically takes two years to complete. After you’ve done that, you can express an interest in joining CIB. From there you go into the Detective Development Programme which includes an interview and exam.
Then if you’re selected, you become part of the Detective Development Course. It’s a one-month intensive education around all things CIB and was the hardest month of my life in terms of the amount of learning. After that, you spend about two and a half years building upon what you learnt on the course while working as a ‘trainee’ detective. This includes more exams and workplace assessments and once that’s done, there’s a qualifying course before you’re finally a ‘qualified’ detective.
Is this job what you expected it to be or is it much different?
I don’t even know what I expected, but I’m pretty sure it’s nothing like what I’ve experienced. I knew it was going to be dynamic but I don’t think I understood just how dynamic it can be.
When you show up to work on any given day you’ve got no idea what is going to happen. We don’t necessarily decide what we’re going to do – the work we do is decided by the actions of others and what we’re responding to on any given day.
There’s a prevention element, but a lot of the time you’re responding to the actions of people and you’ve got no idea what that day will involve.
Det. Kennedy Wilson
What has your personal experience in this job been like?
The past six years have been a ride! There’s been some fantastic adrenaline rushes and some things you see and do stays with you forever – both the good and the bad. I’ve had people say I’ve saved their lives, and others say that I’ve changed their lives - for the better.
It’s probably fair to say there’s a few people out there who might think I’ve ruined their lives too. But when you get positive feedback it’s a pretty life changing thing for the officer too. How do you even describe what that’s like?
People typically ring us when things are bad and a lot of what we do is help get them through that. And that’s a huge roller coaster on a daily basis. Sometimes that looks like spending the day in a helicopter searching for a missing person, other times it is sitting next to a victim in a hospital having them tell you about the worst thing that’s ever happened to them.
Sergeant Jonny Humm, Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland
Is there a specific case that has affected you as a person or has stuck with you during your career?
We do an unusual job and get exposed to the worst days in people’s lives regularly and most of these events become part of my everyday work, especially as a detective. While in the CIB, I was dealing with victims, witnesses and evidence relating to serious violence, large scale drug supply and sexual abuse. It sounds strange but talking about, seeing, and hearing that stuff just becomes normal after a while.
There are a few events that really stick out however, jobs I can still smell, places I drive past and still feel like I can see the scene. I wouldn’t go as far as saying they affect me, but you’d have to be a robot not to have some kind of response. I’ve got some good habits to help de-stress after these big events. I’ll make sure I have a good gym session or spend some time with my family. This all helps me to leave work at work.
One of my last major cases as a detective involved investigating a man for a string of serious sexually motivated offences against both adults and children. I spent months poring over obscene material and working with the victims to build a strong case.
It was really challenging for me and I found I couldn’t leave work at work like I usually do. I spoke with people about that which helped. I went to the sentencing with some of the victims and it was rewarding to see the victims get some degree of justice, some degree of closure. Attending the sentencing helped me close the chapter on that case in my own mind too.
Is what we see on television programmes like ‘Criminal Minds’ etc, realistic?
While there are some good police/investigative dramas they are usually wildly unrealistic, especially the American ones. Even the documentaries based on real stories or presenting real case files don’t often fairly represent what it’s like to actually investigate a complex murder.
The thing they usually get wrong is the pace, solving a case happens just way too fast. DNA results coming back right away, speaking to witness after witness and never taking the time to sit down and get detailed statements, medical reports that the doctor will just give orally while everyone is standing around the table – it’s all solved too quickly for it to be real.
To put that in context, I’ve spent hours, sometimes a whole shift interviewing key witnesses to events. If you want detail, you can’t rush through it. Equally for expert reports like forensics, doctors, and pathologists you’ll likely be waiting weeks to months for formal reports and results. Some stuff we even send off to experts overseas for their advice, which adds even more time to big inquiries.
All that time and detail means there is lots of data to dig through, lots of documents to read and assess. In a big case it might be something a whole team works on, equally I’d had drug dealing files where it’s been my job alone to wade through thousands of messages between potential dealers and buyers. The other thing you never see on TV are detectives sitting at their desks furiously typing out a search warrant.
But by far, my biggest frustration is the TV detectives never seem to have anything else going on but the one case for that episode and their own personal drama. As a detective I held a range of investigations and court cases myself, along with many more cases where I had a temporary role as part of a wider team.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to pursue a career in law enforcement?
Go out and experience the world for a bit after finishing school. Travel overseas, get a job, go to university, anything like that to get some experience of the world beyond your own. Don’t feel like you need to go and study criminology either although that would be a good track to follow. Jobs in sales, service and hospitality all provide great experience because they have you dealing with people face-to-face. The more difficult the customers the better, as far as getting some experience of what policing is like.
Some understanding of technology like social media, mobile phones, encryption helps these days because more and more criminal offending involves digital technology but don’t feel like you must be a genius, we are all good at something, not everything so just lean into your strengths.
After you’ve gained some life experience with people, then it’s time to get stuck into policing because you’ve got to be a constable first before you can start learning to be a detective.
The process to qualify as a detective takes about three years. You start as a constable, then a constable on trial, then become a detective constable before finally getting your gold detective badge. Across those years you’ll do a variety of theory exams and workplace assessments. It’s a bit of a process but very worthwhile.
What has been the most rewarding part of your job?
It's hard to pin it down because I’ve had so many experiences that I’m proud of. It’s important to remember that for us to have a great work story, or a good opportunity, it usually means something awful has happened to someone – we don’t get called to investigate otherwise. Our excitement about those jobs, our pride in what we do, should always be measured against the reality of why the case exists in the first place. For those reasons, it can be a bit hard to talk about our “good work” stories, especially outside of the police and to the public.
With that in mind, a few years ago when I was first training to be a detective, I was given the role of interviewing the suspect for a double homicide, a great opportunity for a detective-in-training.
I was able to speak with the suspect over a few days, learn about their life and get an account of what happened in their version of events. I informed the suspect that he was being charged with murder and gave him his Bill of Rights.
That was a real career highlight as a budding detective and really stretched by communication and interviewing skills.
Homicides are some of the most high-profile events, so significant roles on those investigations are always equal parts rewarding and challenging.
However, one of the most rewarding interactions I’ve had wasn’t a high-profile court case like some of the homicides I’ve worked on, instead It was an historic child abuse case.
The offence itself took place a few decades ago and it was reported to us more recently. Unfortunately, due to the age of the case, the case didn’t go to court, but we arranged an outcome the victim was happy with. In the end the victim thanked me and said that they were grateful that I’d been assigned their case and given it the time and effort I did.
It sounds small, but it was a moment of real pride for me, I felt like I’d really delivered for this victim.
I took a little break from investigations between 2022 and 2023 to lead a section of new recruits at the Royal New Zealand Police College (RNZPC) for their initial training until their graduation. Having a role in the training and development of new staff and seeing them graduate, was a massive highlight and a big part of why I decided to move from CIB as a detective, take on a leadership role and become a sergeant.
What are the requirements you must meet to become a homicide detective?
While I can’t speak for every district, in Auckland we don’t have dedicated homicide teams. Homicide operation teams are put together mostly from detectives, and staff training to be detectives from across the CIB. On many operations uniform constables will also have roles, usually in the early phases of an investigation.
Once you’ve joined the police, you’ll need to complete your first few years in uniform and then apply to join the CIB.
Once in the CIB and you’re a qualified detective there are a range of further courses you can go on to expand your investigative skills. It’s one of the exciting parts of our work because there is always something new to learn.
How many people are involved in the initial investigation of a homicide, are there different units that arrive first at the crime scene?
It really depends on what has happened. I’ve worked on operations that have had a handful of staff and others which have had a lot. A few years ago, I attended a homicide from the very beginning, the first 111 call. I was in the area doing something unrelated with another CIB member when the stabbing call came in. We went along with some uniformed frontline staff to assist. We located all the people involved, made the scene safe for ambulance staff to follow us in and then started first aid. Detectives from Auckland City Crime Squad followed quite quickly after that, they are the frontline team of detectives that support uniformed constables at serious events. They are led by a detective sergeant. CIB leadership arrived after that, both the detective senior sergeant and a detective inspector came along. We briefed them on what we knew and they made plans for how the investigation would follow.
We had a range of experts come next to help, forensic experts, police photographers and a pathologist. Then there is an array of other police officers who were called in to assist, guarding the scene while the examination was taking place, interviewing witnesses, and following up with the victim’s family. I worked that case for a few weeks before returning to my usual role at the time. Forensic scientists from the Institute of Environmental Science Research (ESR) often come along to serious crime scenes to work on police investigations.
Have you ever worked on a cold case?
Not a homicide cold case, but I have worked on some historic sexual offence files, reported to police years, sometimes even decades after they have occurred. These come with unique challenges and opportunities.
Apart from all the bad things your job entails, what do you enjoy about your work?
I wouldn’t say our job entails many bad things, there isn’t much I don’t enjoy about policing so I get enjoyment out of most shifts. The things I enjoy the most is what I’d call a rolling job, an incident that happens and just when you think you’re finished and you’ll need to hand over to an investigator you get fresh leads and evidence and can move again quickly from scene to scene or witness to witness before finally locating the suspect. Then at the end of the job, with your suspect in custody you sit down and start writing your statement, explaining how you know they did it, how you proved it, where the evidence comes from and only then do you realise just how big the job has been because you’ve been so busy.
I had one of those days not too long ago, a person was shot in a botched robbery. We sent staff to the scene, then to the victim at the hospital, then using a range of police tools and some observant staff we got a great lead on a suspect. We had a tactical team help with a search warrant and found our offender a short distance away from the scene, with a round of ammunition in his pocket. It was a long day but some great police work was done by our teams to get a good result.
Has your job affected your personal life?
It’s tough to answer this briefly. The job has impacted my personal life – both positively and negatively. You meet some exceptional people in the police and my closest friends now are all police officers I’ve met while working.
It would be naive to say there are no downsides. Shift work means I’ve missed plenty of family dinners, lunches, birthdays, and Christmas days. Keeping up with friends who work normal business hours can also be tough because they are free on nights and weekends when I might be at work or sleeping off a night shift. I think I’ve worked New Year's Eve almost every year for the last eight. But not every role in the police has shifts like this – so you’ll have to do shifts sometimes but there are options if you don’t want to do shifts forever.
Equally like I said previously there are cases that are just hard, awful things happen to people and it’s our job to wade through that and get to the truth. I’ve got some healthy habits which keep me balanced on my days off.
What is one piece of advice that you have been given that has stuck with you throughout your career?
Best piece of advice received was the phrase “So what”. Back in 2016 my first police college sergeant used to hammer us with that question. They were trying to get us to ask more questions, look for more evidence and more detail. If you think you know something, then ask yourself “so what”. Ask more questions, test the answers you’re being given and find more evidence. I’ve been applying this advice since day one.
Are you allowed to stay in contact with families after the cases have been solved?
I don’t, and we’re strongly encouraged not to do this for a range of reasons. Partly for our own welfare and workload being the biggest two, but also because it’s not a good idea professionally.
It’s wise to maintain a degree of distance with people – it can be a conflict of interest. I’m a nosey person so I do sometimes think about cases I’ve had, especially for some of the traumatic and complex files I’ve worked on as a detective, but I know that closure is important.
It’s important because I’ve got new files that need my attention and because people were likely speaking to me at the worst time of their life, as nice as I might be to talk with, I’ll always be a reminder of that stressful time for them.
Have you always wanted to do this job?
No, I didn’t grow up dreaming about it. Even when I joined the Police, I didn’t think I’d be a detective. I started working in the corporate world with my communications skills, but just felt like I needed a job with more purpose. I found the New Zealand Police that way and just got way too interested in other people’s business not to be a detective!
Why did you decide to become a detective in the police?
The short answer: Because I’m nosey. The long answer: As a frontline officer you attend lots of emergencies when they are happening or have just happened.
When they are serious, like someone has been shot or stabbed, killed, or raped, then we call the detectives.
As a frontline police officer, it means you’re often leaving the scene of those serious crimes without really knowing what happened, who did it or most interestingly in my opinion, why it happened.
After a few years of frontline work I started working on a burglary investigations team, getting some experience.
During that time, I realised how exciting it can be to take a case and try and get a result. I had a great boss at the time who used to be a detective so that helped motivate me to become a detective and see an investigation through to the end.
Does the job impact your mental well-being?
I wear two hats at work – I’m a member of the (on-call) Police Negotiation Team (PNT) but I am a frontline, uniform sergeant now, which is my full-time role. It’s busy, that’s for sure and both roles expose me to quite a bit of conflict and trauma.
With that said, most of the things we see and do day-to-day doesn’t bother me. It’s traumatic stuff no doubt but it isn’t my trauma to hold. Thinking this way about each job helps me acknowledge how those affected might feel without getting bogged down in the emotion myself. However, I’ve been to a few jobs that weighed heavily on me.
Most recently, as a detective I attended the accidental death of a child. There isn’t anything that can prepare you for what that grief looks and sounds like. It’s not just your job to turn up, but it’s also your job to physically examine the body, the place the death happened and then speak to the parents in the minutes and hours following the incident.
Thankfully for me, this was not the first time I’d attended an incident like this – but it doesn’t make it much easier.
My father is a smart guy and he gave me some good advice around this type of situation. He said, “Choose to feel differently”. At first, I thought this was just about ignoring your feelings but it’s not, it’s about acknowledging how you feel, understanding rationally why that is and choosing to move on.
There is also quite a rigorous welfare programme here at work; if you want to speak with a professional counsellor, it’s encouraged and any request is granted very quickly.
What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
I’m privileged to be married to a beautiful woman who keeps me humble and grounded. We’ve got a son keeping us both very busy – beyond that I love to get to the gym, go running, play a bit of music and play video games with my extended family.