Waikato Police are welcoming back their star rural 'a-tractor' for this week’s National Fieldays, with the return of the Police branded tractor, following its nationwide tour of other pastures throughout the year.
Inspector Paul Carpenter said the idea behind the concept came from conversations at last year's National Fieldays at Mystery Creek.
"Police always have a presence at the June event as we seek to promote crime prevention initiatives with the rural community. Here in the Waikato we've had a number of innovations over the years from the country's first coloured, marked patrol car to mounted patrols and last year's quadbike crash scene.
"After that initial discussion last year, I approached representatives of the CB Norwood Distributors about the feasibility of combining a display to help promote engagement with the rural sector. They really got behind the idea, loaning us the New Holland tractor, and transporting it around various farming events in the North and South Island”.
The tractor is kitted out with Police decals, lights and even a siren! It has been a big hit with young and old, generating plenty of questions and photo opportunities.
“It’s all about promoting discussions regarding things like; rural road deaths, drug activity on farms, personal safety, stock thefts, illegal hunting and existing partnerships such as the one we have with Crimestoppers and Federated Farmers with the "Shut the Gate" campaign." said Mr Carpenter
"Rural areas present unique challenges for Police such as longer travelling distances, lack of cell phone and radio networks, smaller numbers of staff required to do more in depth engagement with smaller communities.
"Add to that, tactics that may work in large urban centres may not work that well in a rural setting, but the key thing is, Police need to know about incidents and rural residents need to feel comfortable reporting issues to us, we need to move away from the mind set of; "oh the Police are too busy, I won't trouble them."
Mr Carpenter said the partners in this initiative hoped the tractor would attract widespread discussion and help Police help the rural community shut the gate on rural crime.
