Forty years ago, Lynda Perry walked into a police station wanting to join up but was turned away because she didn’t meet height requirements.
Now she has hit the beat in Tokoroa as one of New Zealand's newest cops – and, at 57, the oldest person to graduate from The Royal New Zealand Police College since its opening in 1981.
Lynda admits she’s still pinching herself that a dream she’s had for most of her life has finally come true.
After her initial attempt to join in 1981, Lynda tried again 10 years later when she discovered the height requirements had been dropped. She made it through the initial stages but failed on the maths part. She could have potentially gone back but, with a two-and-a-half-year-old child, she didn’t.
“I regretted it almost every day – it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do," she says. "Back then, the reasons were a little different – I wanted to be a traffic cop on a motorbike – but I never lost the desire to join.
“I got to the point where it almost consumed me, I wanted this so badly.”
She was spurred into action two years ago when she heard a talk by a constable from another district who was in her early 50s when she joined. “I applied that day.”
She didn’t tell her family initially, wanting to make sure she had a good chance before sharing with them what she’d done.
“They weren’t too surprised; I’ve banged on about it for as long as the kids have been alive – for them it’s been more a question of ‘why did you wait so long’?”
Lynda, who has lived in Papamoa for the past seven years, says while she originally wanted to recruit back to the Tauranga area, she wasn’t willing to wait any longer than she needed to finally fulfil her dream.
“At my age you don’t have the luxury of waiting. My kids have grown up so when the option of Tokoroa came up we thought, let’s do it.
“When I was young the appeal was around the excitement of the job, how every day is different. That still applies but now I really wanted to join because I think I have something to offer.”
Her advice to others in a similar situation? “Just go for it. On the whole, people have been really accepting of it.”
Tokoroa Area Response Manager Senior Sergeant Murray Hamilton says Lynda has been a great addition to the team.
“She brings a mature presence with worldly experience to our station. It’s this sort of diversity that improves our service to the public.”
Since starting training, Lynda has developed a strong interest in family harm and is also interested in getting into Disaster Victim Identification or photography.
But for now, she’s not taking a single day for granted after finally pursuing the career she’s always wanted.