WAIOURU CRIME LINE

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 12, Issue 561, 8 November 1994, Page 4

WAIOURU CRIME LINE

By

CONSTABLE EDD1E

Bates

Kiaora Waiouru and surrounding districts. Hopefully this will be the first of many articles that will appear in our local paper over the next few months. Waiouru Police are finally back to their full complement of three officers for the first time in over a year. The new arrival in town is Mike Martin, an officer with 14-yearsexperiencein the service. He and his fam-

ily certainly arrived at the right time of the year - my family and I got here during the dead of winter and almost didn' t survive the first week. • One of the complaints I have heard conceming our local policing operation is that at times we are very difficult to get hold of. The difficulty arises from the fact that quite often we are not in the office to answer the phone. However I can ^ assure you that we are out and about and can be contacted if required, either by leaving a message on our answer phone or calling us directly on our cell phone, 025-442-678. If the matter is urgent and you require immediate assistance then please don't hesitate in dialing the emergency number, 111, and asking for the appropriate service, ie police, ambulance or fire service. In Waiouru we provide a 24-hour service, an officer works every day of the week and outside of working hours that officer remains on-call. Our operations base is located in Wanganui and they can contact the on-call officer at any time. One of our main functions in Waiouru is to serve the community. This not only involves the investigation of crime and the apprehension of offenders but also involves helping people in any way that we can, so if you have a problem which we may be able to help you with then don't hesitate to call.

Talking about communities, ours would have to be one of the safest in the country. Serious crime is almost non-existent, our families can walk our streets without fear of becoming a crime statistic and that's something I believe we can all be proud of. • Now on a more serious note, it has come to our attention that a number of people out in the community think that driving while under the influence of alcohol is okay. Over the last few weeks we have attended a number of motor vehicle accidents involving suspected drunkdrivers. We have also been stopping a large number of vehicles and a frightening percentage of these drivers had been drinking prior to being stopped. A number of them will be prosecuted. Drunk-drivers are a liability on the road, they endanger themselves and all others who happen to be on the same piece of road as them. We have in the past used our discretion and on occasion warned people, obviously this tactic is not working. To combat this, it has been decided that the use of discretion is no longer the order of the day and if you are found driving whilst under the influence then you will suffer the consequences and without hesitation be prosecuted. So for your own sake and in the interest of road safety , don't drink and drive.