Paula Stevens

Inspector Paula Stevens joined the New Zealand Police in 1972.

Paula started her career in Dunedin. After completing her Police training at Trentham she worked there on frontline general duties until she was promoted to sergeant in 1978 and moved to Wellington.

After three years in Wellington she transferred to the West Coast, where she was Greymouth’s first female sergeant. During her time at the Greymouth station, she received the Commissioner’s Certificate of Merit for dedication and skill in controlling the rescue of a small fishing vessel which foundered crossing the Grey River Bar.

In 1986 Paula was promoted to senior sergeant while working in Palmerston North, and in 1990 in Wellington she was promoted to inspector. In 1993 she moved to Christchurch and worked as a shift commander, and later the operational services manager.

In Christchurch, Paula took the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) course and passed with flying colours. She commanded the Christchurch AOS until she was appointed as the Southern Special Tactics Group (STG) Commander, based in Christchurch, where she worked for almost 8 years. Paula was the first woman appointed to the AOS and STG Command roles.

In 2000 Paula was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal in the New Year Royal Honours List, in recognition for her dedication to the service and her excellent operational and management skills. Later that year she was deployed to East Timor as the New Zealand Police contingent and the nature of her work led to her receiving a New Zealand Police Commissioner’s Silver Merit Award in 2002. In 2003, she was deployed to the Solomon Islands.

In 2005 Paula returned to Police National Headquarters where she worked in the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police (PICP) Secretariat until she resigned from police at the end of 2007. During her time with PICP she developed programmes for member services in conjunction with UNAIDS and she helped develop the PICP Women’s Advisory Network, involving 21 countries.