Aimee and Richard are members of the N.Z. Police Force and were our Guest Speakers.
Aimee has been in the Police Force for 15 years. Married to a Farmer and has a young family. Her responsibility in the Matamata Piako Region is Rural Prevention.
Their mission motto is “To prevent crime and harm through exceptional policing.”
The presentation was broken down into 3 parts;
Why We’re Here,
What We Do,
How We Do It.
Aimee emphasized REPORT REPORT REPORT.
Richard has been in the Police Force for 14 years and is a Police Dog Handler based in Hamilton. He gave us an insight of what he is involved in with recent incidents. Richard has had 3 dogs since he commenced. The present dog ‘Gabby’ is 9 ½ years old and will be retired later this year. Richard also has ‘Lichen’ who is 20 months old and will be taking over from ‘Gabby’ when he is fully trained.
In the 7½ years Richard and ‘Gabby’ have worked together they have apprehended in excess of 500 people.
Police Dogs are trained to sniff out human odour and their noses are 10,000 more sensitive than humans. The training period can take up to 20 – 24 month with an estimated cost of $100,000.
Both the presentations by Aimee and Richard were very interesting and caused many questions to be asked.