Hello all you lovely people. I am still champing at the bit to get back in uniform after my nasty crash at Christmas time but not long now.

I would like to welcome Constable Andy to the team. I worked with Andy when he started in the police in Dunedin, great bloke. If you see him around town, please say hi.

Along with the rest of the team here I will be targeting those people who deliberately hurt others, risk the safety of others and take what they do not have the right to take whether it is on the roads, homes or businesses.

I was showing a group of primary school children through the police station last Friday and I asked them what police do. Every group of little ones came up with the “catch baddies”, “catch robbers”, “catch speeders” etc but every group had at least one who said “Help People!!!”. Thank you to those which remind the community that we have a primary purpose to protect.

Generally, that is what police do. If it is protecting people causing carnage on the roads, assaults, thefts, or drugs we pretty much do all our business to help someone. If I arrest someone for a family harm offence I do so to protect the victim from further harm or injury. If I write someone a speeding or seatbelt ticket, I am protecting them or other motorists from being hurt.

You only need to ask a police officer if they have seen how speed and not wearing seatbelts cause trauma on the roads. Don’t even get me started talking about the drink driving in this town. It’s disgraceful.

We have had a busy week, but a few particular matters stood out.

We caught burglars this week who in broad daylight entered a property and were spotted by the owner who was home. Those persons were caught thanks to quick actions by the owner and notifying us as soon as possible.

We had three road crashes on one morning before 9am. Make sure you clear your frosty windscreens because every year we have crashes caused by someone looking through a porthole and visibility clearly wasn’t good enough. Set your alarm five minutes earlier at this time of year to get up in time to clear the car so you are not rushing. Drive expecting Jack Frost to lay his devious traps.

There were a number of other youth matters I won’t mention in here.

How about we have a fluffy bunnies week. If you know you are doing, or about to do something that your Grandmother wouldn’t approve of, take a breath, walk away, or think again.

I would love to write a Crimeline next week that is all about how many snowmen were made or how many people have helped someone cross a road or how many muffins were given to people who need something nice or other kind things were done for others.

Take care of each other please.