New Counties Manukau West Area Commander Inspector Dave Christoffersen had a warm welcome to the district with a pōwhiri on Monday 11 November.
Dave has taken over from acting Area Commander Inspector Ross Ellwood, who is soon to head to Australia to spend a year as a visiting fellow at the Australian Institute of Police Management in Sydney.
Dave, who began his policing career 22 years ago, brings with him wide and varied experience of both rural and urban policing.
He has also been deployed internationally, having spent a year as Senior Advisor to the Southern Command of the Bougainville Police Service.
Dave has a master’s degree in social work and, before joining Police, spent 10 years in the youth and community work sector. Most recently, Dave was the Area Prevention Manager in Auckland Central and worked on embedding the Safer Streets initiative into the CBD.
Dave is happy to have started his new role and is already feeling at home in Counties Manukau.
"I’m very grateful for the warm welcome and the settling process provided by mana whenua, Iwi Services, the DLT and Ross and the Counties Manukau West team," he said at the pōwhiri.
"I am certainly looking forward to the slow lifting of the fog that often comes we you cross districts, meeting new people, and learn the nuances of a new district.
"I am excited by the challenges of working hard to help us work to be the safest country and playing our part in Counties West to achieve that."
Dave shared the following whakatauki:
Mai te rangi ki te whenua, mai te whenua ki te rangi
Paiheretia tatou ki te ora
Paiheretia tatou ki te Rangimarie
Paiheretia tatou ki te tumanako
Kotahi matou i roto i nga mahi pirihimana.
From the sky to the earth from the earth to the sky
Bind us together in wellness, bind us together in Peace, bind us together in hope
Work together as one in Police
