We were privileged to host Sergeant Rhys Smith as our speaker last Thursday, and to learn from someone who knows our community well and is also intimately involved with the Covid-19 response.

Rhys trained at the Royal NZ Police College in Porirua, working for 10 years from 1999 as a Constable in Auckland Central.  Since 2008 as Sergeant, he has been in Auckland East, based at Onehunga, Mt Wellington, Newmarket, Sylvia Park and now at Glen Innes where he specialises in Youth Services. Rhys is married with 3 children who attend local schools.

Rhys spoke of the response to Covid-19 at isolation hotels, from the first days when procedures were being developed on the fly – there being no similar situation during our lifetimes.  The response was named Operation Mercy and was well coordinated by senior inspectors. Initially, however, there were some uncertainties in the powers that police had, in the availability of PPE, and in knowledge of where Covid-positive people were held.  At the same time, some passengers arriving from overseas took careful convincing to accept deferment of their holiday plans until after their 14 days’ isolation.  

Occasional incoming passengers stood out, as with the case of a couple who refused to be isolated at the Novotel and instead ‘demanded’ accommodation at the Pullman. Rhys ‘obliged’, with the couple bundled into the back of a paddy-wagon for the trip across town – the metal cage then being sprayed down afterwards to disinfect.  A total of 15 Auckland hotels are now used for isolation of incoming passengers, plus one for arriving kiwi-born Australians who have criminal records.

Police working at isolation hotels often returned home to concerns from their spouse about risk of infection – necessitating immediate showering and change of clothing. While much media attention has focused on occasional escapes, Rhys noted the mental health toll that isolation can take on some people.  At the other extreme, he also encountered a family or two who asked about the possibility of a second free 14 day holiday in a flash hotel.

During the nation’s lockdown, police were involved in checking on people doing self-isolation at home, at a time when crimes were rare and few cars were on the road. Random stopping of cars, for example after 10 pm, deterred criminals from venturing out.  Thousands of kiwis, however, reported neighbours’ breaches of lockdown regulations, sometimes just reflecting neighbourly disputes but also highlighting continued drug dealing – as if the latter was an ‘essential service’.  

 

On the more welcome side were the rewarding parts of the job – welfare checks of families, delivering clothes and food parcels, and distributing laptops. Rhys reported increases during the lockdown in family harm, mental health problems, and attempted suicide in our local area, but also less alcohol-related harm and fewer burglaries.

 

A special thanks to Peter Buchanan for writing the above very comprehensive review in the Editors absence - thanks Peter

Ticket sales are moving very slowly - so the challenge is on for all members to commit to buying a ticket or table and to encourage friends, family and work colleagues to come along to the best Quiz Night in the District.  Tickets are $25 or $250 for table of 10.  Please click onto this link to email Robyn and advise how many tickets you want.

 

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