Robyn Brand

Robyn Brand joined the New Zealand Police in 1967. She had been in the Metropolitan Police in London for a year before she moved to New Zealand and joined the police.

Robyn was on duty during the Wahine disaster, spending over 12 hours in the morgue at night as the bodies were brought in. She says the processes have changed and developed so much since then, but on that night it was ‘fly by the seat of our pants stuff’. Most bodies were hard to identify. Staff worked continuously through the night and were on shift the following night. There was no counselling for police staff after tragic events.

Looking back Robyn says, “It’s always made me proud that I helped people. I have a strong sense of right and wrong and believed I needed to stand up for the society we could be. Joining the police helped me do that. It’s what I knew after working for the Met in London.”

In 1968 Robyn became pregnant with her first child and had to leave the police. She had two more children and she focused on them, before going into various part-time jobs. When the family moved to Tauranga she became a real estate agent.

Two of her children joined NZ Police. Her daughter Alison is an Inspector in Counties Manukau, and one of her sons is a Detective Sergeant in the North Shore, Auckland. Robyn’s husband was also a policeman for 38 years. She has seven grandchildren, six of whom are girls. Robyn wonders if one of them will become a police officer one day.

Robyn says the young women in police today are amazing and the New Zealand public is so lucky to have them.