He is perhaps the best-known face of the Royal New Zealand Police College (RNZPC), he has undoubtedly helped shape more recruits for the front line than anyone else, and he has certainly given more years to policing than most. He is the incomparable Alan Richards.
As he celebrates 60 years of policing, Alan is just as passionate and energetic about his work as ever. Retirement is not for him yet.
His role right now is National Coordinator Workplace Assessment, part of the Initial Training group at the RNZPC – the group he joined in 1986 as a recruit instructor.
He has spent over 37 years at the RNZPC, but it all started for him back in 1963 in the UK when 16-year-old Alan saw a policeman ride past on a motorbike.
“I thought, wow, he’s getting paid to do that! So that was my reason for becoming a Police cadet.”
The Metropolitan Police years
On 2 September 1963 at 4pm, Alan became a Metropolitan Police Cadet. His cadet training, both at training schools and working on the street alongside constables, lasted until he turned 19 at which time he was sworn in and joined what would be the first of two recruit courses he passed (the other being over a decade later in New Zealand).
There was no special graduation ceremony before he was posted to his first station – Poplar Police Station in the East End of London.
“If you’ve ever watched the TV show Call the Midwife, that’s what it was like then in the East End,” says Alan.
He spent two years on the beat – with the only tactical equipment at hand being a baton and a ceremonial whistle (see picture, right), plus blue Police phone boxes at points along the beat to phone for help or be tasked with jobs. While there was no time travel in those phone boxes, there was usually time for a cigarette.
Then, Alan realised his motorbike ambition, astride 200cc Velocettes riding around the streets of London – “that was really good fun”. However, his attention soon turned to a bigger beast.
Those who know Alan well will know he loves tradition, ceremony and pageantry, which is why he oversees most of the parades and ceremonies at the RNZPC and is acknowledged as the expert on protocols such as flag raising and marching.
Back in London, as he was doing his foot duty lining the street while parades went past, he saw a new opportunity.
“I’ve always loved the ceremony of parades, and the Mounted Branch are front and centre of ceremony. They’d go riding past, and I’d go, boy, I wouldn’t mind doing that!”
Alan was brought up in the city, and when he applied to join the Mounted Branch he was asked if he had any horse-riding experience.
“To which I replied, ‘oh, yes sir.’ You could see the interest in the selection panel members pick up, they were so pleased, and they said ‘tell us your experience on a horse,’ and I said ‘when I was four my parents took me to a beach and I had a ride on a donkey’ and I could see one of them urging me for more ... yes, yes ... and I said no, no, that’s it. Anyway they were smiling and they gave me the job.”
From then on, says Alan, all week his work involved training and policing – on horseback – protests, games at Chelsea Football Club and Queens Park Rangers Football Club, and ceremonies.
In fact Alan’s work as a Mounted Constable took him into some highly fraught situations. Anti-Vietnam War protests were often taking place in Grosvenor Square in front of the American Embassy, with thousands of protesters. When they turned violent, and the officers on the ground lost control and had to fall back, Alan and his horse – both with nerves of steel – would be among a line-up of up to 80 horses and riders that came forward to regain control.
One of the big highlights of that time for Alan was Trooping the Colour parades.
“I just loved being right in the middle of it. Often I didn’t go in the parades because I was at Buckingham Palace.
"Just going to the Palace, being in the inner courtyard and having a halter on the horse that was used by the Duke of Wellington – that history and the ceremonial uniforms, I look back on that and think it was just fabulous being part of it all.”
What wasn’t so fabulous was the pay and a roster that saw him working 6 days a week. Alan, his wife and two young daughters were struggling to make ends meet. They heard about an opportunity for Alan to join the New Zealand Police and so in 1974 the family moved to the other side of the world.
Alan's last station in the Met Police, Hyde Park Police Station.
The New Zealand Police years – training and Whanganui posting
“I never wanted to wonder what it might have been like,” says Alan, who set off first for New Zealand by plane, his family coming out by ship. Sworn in on 13 May 1974 at Wellington Central, Alan was now a constable in the New Zealand Police – but he had to complete his second lot of recruit training first.
He graduated from Wing 58 in August 1974 and was posted to Whanganui, where his family joined him.
Policing in New Zealand compared to London was like chalk and cheese he says.
“Learning the New Zealand legislation, that was the easy bit. The hard thing was the culture – who you’re talking to and how you’re talking to them.
“When I was a cop in London, your back-up was just around the corner. Police stations were barely a mile apart, so if there was big trouble in A, then B, C, D and F would turn up ... Then you go to a place like Whanganui where your back-up is either in bed fast asleep or in Palmerston North, so you really have to think about the style of policing, where you stop demanding and telling and do a bit more asking.”
In 1979, still based in Whanganui, Alan became a Youth Aid Officer, a job he loved and saw as a privilege to do. As he grew in the role he started training those around him at the station in the processes for dealing with children and young people.
This was all about making the work easier and quicker for the staff and as a result, easier and quicker for him.
As Assistant Commissioner Jill Rogers said about Alan at his 60th celebration held at the RNZPC in September, “This is part of who he is – someone who looks for a better way and better outcomes, and puts the effort in to make it happen.”
That effort led him to the RNZPC in 1986, taking on a recruit instructor role.
Youth Aid Course, late 1970s. Alan is first left in the middle row.
The Royal New Zealand Police College years
The first graduation he went to (apart from his own) was Wing 102. Leap forward to today, where we’ve just graduated Wing 371 – Alan has been to most of the graduations since that first wing.
His first section as an instructor was on Wing 104 and his last was on Wing 209 – but his work with the wings since then has been ongoing.
Instructors at RNZPC, 1986. Alan is in the back row, fourth from left.
Alan was back on horseback for the 1986 Police Centenary.
For some of the 1990s Alan worked in Aotea Training Services, which provided courses to external organisations. When the RNZPC changed focus away from external training in 1999, Alan rejoined the Initial Training team as a recruit instructor, but was soon asked to deploy to Timor Leste, to help set up the Timor-Leste Police Service focusing on developing the training resources needed for the police recruits.
Alan rates this as a highlight of his career.
“How many people get the chance to design a training course for a brand-new police service? Virtually nobody and I got that opportunity.”
Other deployments followed, to Bougainville and later to Niue, also with a focus on training.
Retirement of a sort came along. At 4.30pm on 22 June 2001 Alan stepped down from his constabulary role, had the weekend off, and came back to the RNZPC on the Monday with exactly the same class but in plain clothes.
Alan still wears his uniform at formal Police occasions – with ‘R’ on his tunic showing he is a retired sergeant.
Retired Sergeant Alan Richards in uniform.
In 2004, he moved to a new role – National Coordinator Workplace Assessment, working with the newly graduated constables as they traverse their two probationary years on the front line.
But Alan admits over the years he has taken on “lots of other things”.
He designed and now administers and assesses an adult education certificate for new instructors; he does training plans and arranges attestations for ‘Rejoins’ – people who have been police officers in the past but left Police and want to rejoin in a constabulary role; he has been one of the main organisers of Remembrance Day commemorations since they began in 1989; he has been and is a member of a number of committees; and he’s been a long-time member of the RNZPC’s Kapa Haka Group.
At far right, Alan salutes as he oversees the Police Remembrance Day 2023 national service held at the RNZPC on 29 September.
Somehow he also finds the time to speak to high school students who are studying the Springbok Tour, sharing with them his experiences of policing during that time.
In 2002, Alan received a Commissioner’s Commendation for his contribution to Police training, which recognised him as “a professional role model for those he trained”. Then in 2015, in recognition of his outstanding service to the New Zealand Police and police training, the Commissioner of the time, Mike Bush, awarded Alan the New Zealand Police Meritorious Service Medal, known as the MSM. This is the highest award the Commissioner can make to a member of Police.
At the award ceremony, then-Commissioner Bush said of Alan:
“His professional and principled approach epitomises the core values of New Zealand Police, and he has made a significant contribution to the life, tikanga, ceremonial protocols and educational standards of the Royal New Zealand Police College...
“He has demonstrated to thousands of Police staff and recruits the Police value of respect for all peoples in the communities they serve.”
Today, Alan is just as committed to Police and the RNZPC. He’s still shaping our newest members of Police.
He’s the first voice from the RNZPC our new recruits hear when they start their Aronui online course, and he stays with them on their journey, offering tutoring and learning support.
And he’s right there with them through their graduation.
Asked what the RNZPC means to him, Alan replied, “A lifetime of effort”.
It’s effort that’s been hugely appreciated by those he’s trained and his colleagues, as the messages he received at news of his 60th show. Just a couple of examples are:
- “For me, like thousands of other police officers, you have had a huge influence on my career. On the first day that I arrived at the Royal New Zealand Police College in 1993, you were there guiding, developing and supporting me.”
- “Alan was my sectional sergeant in 2002 and we were his 100th wing... He is equally amazing now as he was then... He has shaped the minds of so many and always with incredible enthusiasm, passion and wit.”
- “When I became a sergeant I modelled my leadership on what I learnt from you. You have been one of the biggest influences on my career.”
- “You’re an absolute machine, a brilliant communicator, and a wealth of knowledge... I look forward to many more years of your stories, your brilliant British banter and your educated insight into learning.”
After 60 years, why does Alan keep coming to work?
“I wake up each work day with not one single thought about ‘oh no not again’... I look upon coming to work as a social event, I work with great people, I thoroughly enjoy their company...
“I found my place in the world at the RNZPC... It’s just wonderful to see the development of people. They come in here as good people and they leave as great people.”
Greatness learnt, in part, from Alan.
Alan training the Colour Party for Wing 369's graduation in September.
The legacy continues...
But wait, there’s more to Alan’s legacy. In a surprise announcement at his 60th celebration, Alan was named by Commissioner Andrew Coster as the patron of Wing 374, which starts training in January 2024.
“It’s my honour and privilege to announce you will be the first patron of a wing in 2024 at the Police College,” said Commissioner Coster.
“We just so value what you’ve done and think you’ll be an outstanding role model and contributor to those young people in their journey through the College.”
This will make Alan the first serving Police employee to be a wing patron – someone who guides, mentors and inspires the wing.
It’s fair to say Alan’s not often lost for words, but this announcement did it.
With a patron who is a repository of knowledge from a lifetime of policing and an epic storyteller - his wing will love every moment in his company, just as his Police colleagues do.