Labour Weekend

We had a training evening a few weeks back and were asked for volunteers to assist the Team Policing Unit over Labour Weekend. I was asked if I wanted to do two shifts, Friday and Saturday, 6pm to 4am. Of course I said Yes.

The Team Policing Unit is an extension of the Tactical Response Group and is made up of officers that form up during certain events or the Summer period. The intention is to provide a noticeable Police presence in the City or anywhere there is a large gathering of people. It spends a lot of time walking the Strand in Tauranga, going in and out of bars, and standing around, watching the goings on. Labour Weekend is the start of the Summer Policing period, so you will see plenty of high vis vests in town.

Working with the Council, we enforce the Liquor Bans and Underage Drinking problems, and deal with general disorder / breach of the peace, which, in nine out of ten cases, means two alcohol fuelled youths having a go at each other.

We had two prison vans, four cars and about 15 officers along with two recruits like myself. My role was to assist with the processing of those who had been arrested, by getting their details, filling in the appropriate paperwork and bagging up their belongings before putting them in the van and taking them to the Station to spend the night in the cell.

It gets a bit hectic when you get 5 or 6 un-co operative people marched up to the van with cuffs on ...

It's a long cold night when nothing's happening and I hate to think how many kilometres we walked over the two nights, but the rush when a disturbance occurs is awesome.

We also spent a lot of time talking to the public, warning (rather than arresting) for breach of the liquor ban, where that had merit.

The only downside is arriving home at 4.30am and feeling wide awake ...

I love it though.