Leairne Dow

Detective Senior Sergeant Leairne Dow joined the New Zealand Police in 1998.

Leairne has spent her entire career based in Canterbury. When she first graduated from Police College, she started off in Papanui in I-car. Two years later she joined the Police Negotiating Team (PNT).

There are 17 PNT teams nationwide and their role is to help resolve high risk situations peacefully. These situations include armed or barricaded offenders, people who are suicidal or in crisis, kidnappings, protests, cell extractions, search warrants or terrorist incidents.

When Leairne first joined the PNT she worked on suicide threats as a secondary communicator. She says during her time as a negotiator she’s been in cars with people holding a knife; on ledges, balconies and cliff faces with suicidal people; and has climbed through earthquake-abandoned properties in Canterbury – but she’s never felt unsafe thanks to the safety protocols that PNT has in place.

PNT is an on-call roster, so it runs alongside regular police work. In addition to working for PNT, Leairne has worked for various CIB squads and is currently the Operations Manager for the Metro Crime Squad in Canterbury.