Auckland Maritime Unit

Auckland Maritime Unit OC Senior Sergeant Martin Paget stands beside Deodar II

How big is the Auckland Police Maritime Unit?

The Auckland Police Maritime Unit, based in Mechanics Bay near the Port of Auckland, forms part of the Auckland Metro Operations Group managed by the three Auckland metropolitan districts of Auckland City, North Shore/Waitakere/Rodney and Counties/Manukau.

In the Auckland region there are more than 100,000 vessels making up nearly half of all vessels in New Zealand (230,000 nationally). At times there could be hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders at work or play on the water. Thirty two percent, or $10.6 billion, of the region's activity is dependent on, or facilitated by, operation of the Ports of Auckland.

What area does the unit cover?

The Auckland Police Maritime Unit operational area covers approximately 2000sq nautical miles (3704sq/km) which includes the greater Hauraki Gulf, and nearly 200 islands including Great Barrier, and Waiheke with their significant populations of 1500 and approx. 15,000 respectively as well as the Firth of Thames and associated harbours and inlets.

What equipment does the unit use?

The unit operates the 14.7m launch Deodar II, three 12 metre Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats (RHIBs) and a 3.8m inflatable dinghy, Red Knight.

What sort of duties do they undertake?

Most of the units time is spent on crime and disorder, public events, and tasking like lost and found property, body recovery and logistical or operational support for other police. Search and Rescue while high profile and extremely important only accounts for less than six percent of the units time.

The unit also has a close working relationship with many agencies including Customs, Fisheries and the Auckland Regional Council. Crews transport police staff as well as prisoners from or to some of the 200 islands in the area. "For some locations and weather conditions the only practical and safe way to get there is by boat."

"It is commonly accepted that most New Zealanders have an involvement with nautical matters in some form," says OC Police Maritime Unit (Auckland) Senior Sergeant Martin Paget.

"The perception has long been that police have no function on the water, but we have worked hard to change peoples understanding of what we do. It is a fundamental responsibility of Government to protect its citizens. In practice, police must be able to respond to any area where there are significant numbers of citizens at work or participating in recreation."

The history of the Auckland Police Maritime Unit

Auckland's first 'water policeman' was J P Bennett, who was appointed Waiheke Island's District Constable on 6 January 1903.

His beat was the Hauraki Gulf, its many islands and the inside coast of Coromandel Peninsula. He used his own boat which had no radio, so kept in touch with his wife by homing pigeons.

Retiring in 1908, Bennett was replaced by local Harry Insley with his launch Sunbeam. Insley patrolled the area for 20 years from Pikau until his retirement in 1928, when he was succeeded by L F Ashwin who shifted the station to Awaroa Bay and preferred to stay on land, patrolling by horse.

Soon after World War II Police HQ and Government decided to establish a marine presence for the main ports of Auckland, Wellington and Lyttleton. In 1941 three launches were obtained to start the maritime units - Antipodes (Lyttleton), Lady Elizabeth (Wellington) and Tirimoana (Auckland).

The first Auckland Police Launch Master was Clarry Price, who joined police in 1938. Tirimoana started patrolling Auckland Harbour on 2 February 1942 and was returned to its owner towards the end of 1944. It was replaced with the launch Pirate, which had been seized from a German national interned during the war.

At the end of 1945 police purchased Lady Shirley from the Navy and it began service on 12 November 1946. Never an ideal police launch, the vessel spent many months of its service life being repaired. In 1956, when Lady Shirley was again being repaired, Lady Elwyn was borrowed from the Coastguard and became, albeit temporarily, Auckland's fourth police launch.

Public pressure for a decent police maritime capability resulted in the tender for Deodar in the late 1950s. On 15 November 1960 Deodar was launched and sailed from Dunedin to Auckland. Technical problems meant it wasn't commissioned until 20 July 1961.

Due to Deodar's lack of speed there was a need for a fast response vessel to complement the launch. The inflatable boat W.M. Vigilant fitted the bill.

On 11 December 1989 Deodar sunk when it was rammed by a ship coming into port. It was salvaged and sold by tender to private buyers. It was replaced by W M Vigilant and Custom's launch Hawk which was used subject to availability. Hawk was, in turn, replaced by UDC Alert, launching on 19 June 1990.