Queen honours Police staff

Commissioner Mike Bush has welcomed news that two officers today received Queen’s Birthday Royal Honours.

Senior Sergeant Bruce Adams, head of the Police National Dive Squad (PNDS), becomes a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to Police and the community.

Sergeant Whiti Timutimu, a strategic responsiveness advisor with MPES, receives the Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) for her services to criminal justice programmes and the community.

“I’m delighted that Bruce and Whiti have been recognised in this way,” says Commissioner Bush. “The work they’ve done and continue to do in their respective fields is outstanding.”

Both were surprised and humbled to be advised of their new status, says Commissioner Bush. “Typically, they see their Honours as not just about themselves but an acknowledgement of those around them.

"I look forward to representing Police when Bruce and Whiti are invested with their Honours by the Governor General, Dame Patsy Reddy, at Government House later this year."

Diving to make a difference – Bruce Adams MNZM

When Senior Sergeant Bruce Adams, head of the Police National Dive Squad, arrived home from work to open a letter about receiving a Royal Honour, he had to immediately sit down.

“Jeepers. It was a big and unexpected surprise. I don’t know how it came about, and who all was behind it, but to get this MNZM is special, for myself and my family who support me in all that I do.

“This recognition is one for the Police team, and for everyone who has been part of the squad’s 50 years of history and development.”

Bruce, or ‘Bad’ as he is known to many in police, is a leading expert in underwater search and recovery, whose expertise and input is valued internally and externally by partners including Worksafe NZ’s Diving Industry Advisory Group, the Royal NZ Navy, Water Safety NZ and other sector groups.

The citation acknowledges his work in the Dive Squad but also his role in helping shape, review and refine safe practices for working underwater; the development of dive search and recovery procedures; and his work in the prevention space including teaching water safety skills through the Tuakana Teina youth programme.

Bruce has led Dive Squad full-time since 2002 but he’s been on the squad for 28 years. The squad is deployed around 70 times a year, searching and recovering evidence, and sadly all too often looking for bodies.

"The conditions in most of our jobs are never pleasant and with low-to-nil visibility. You’re working in incredibly challenging environments where we rely on our planning, training, equipment and teamwork.

“Every time we dive, we dive with a purpose and to make a difference,” he says. “We put ourselves in the shoes of people who have lost loved ones and do everything we can to find the victims and bring them home.

“Treating people with respect, empathy and compassion are important to me personally, and it’s very much part of our ethos. Taking time to help provide answers to families of victims and respecting cultural practices when bodies are brought ashore, is just part of what we do.”

The hard part is leaving a job without a result, unable to help provide some closure.

All jobs are memorable, but some more so than others.

• Boating tragedies such as the fishing trawler Kotuku which sank in Foveaux Strait in May 2006. Six of the nine people on board died. Three victims were recovered by search and rescue staff while police divers recovered another three from the wreck.

• Weeks of searching for and recovering the bodies of two air crew who lost their lives when their freight plane went down off the Kapiti Coast during a storm in 2003.

• Deep water diving in near frozen South Island lakes searching for the helicopter crash victims.

• Finding former Navy diver Rob Hewitt alive after he spent 72 hours in the water off Kapiti in February 2006.

He appreciates the support Dive Squad has within Police, and also the working relationships with the New Zealand Defence Force specialist teams, and other agencies.

“I’ve have some incredible squad bosses to learn from over the years, especially Pete Thompson. He’s been my greatest inspiration.”

Ideally, he says, no-one would lose their life in a preventable water tragedy. This is another reason why he supports Tuakana Teina youth programmes and other initiatives with recreational divers to help instil or reinforce water safety skills and messages.

“I’m very proud to be part of a high-performing team, and to be part of Police. It’s all about trying to make a positive difference both on and under the water.”

Honour is not just mine – Whiti Timutimu QSM

 Māori Responsiveness Advisor Sergeant Whiti Timutimu could have missed out on her Queen’s Birthday honour.

Living in a remote part of Tairawhiti, she doesn’t always check the mail, largely because 15-year-old daughter Maia usually does. But there was a month or so earlier this year when neither of them checked.

“I was a little bit shocked when we did finally look, because there it was," she says of the letter advising she had been nominated for a Queens Service Medal. "I don’t usually get mail that looks like that. I was cutting it fine for accepting.”

The citation refers to her work in reintegrating prisoners and in mentoring young people, as well as her ability to engage positively with the wider community including volunteers from Police, Fire and Emergency NZ, Army and the Māori wardens.

And the nomination came from the community she works with and for.

She’s quick to say it’s not all about her but rather reflects the privilege of working with iwi, hapu and whānau to set up programmes which work for them.

She was the first police officer to work from a runanga rather than a station. In particular she credits Uncle Api – Apirana Mahuika - for his leadership, mentoring and vision.

Uncle Api was a founding member of the Commissioner's Māori Focus Forum, and played a leading role in developing Police's Responsiveness to Māori strategy and establishing Iwi Liaison Officers.

In 1996 Uncle Api gifted the Police whakatauki E tū ki te kei o te waka, kia pakia koe e ngā ngaru o te wā – Stand at the stern of the canoe and feel the spray of the future biting at your face

Whiti says Tairawhiti presented both issues and the opportunity to approach them differently.

The ATAWHAI Charitable trust, which umbrellas youth mentoring programmes, noted in the citation, arose in response to a principal at his wits’ end with 20 students he was about to exclude. It’s now worked with 600 young people, and the dream is that early graduates will in time take over the programme.

Other mentoring programmes include Qmunity Youth for LGBQTI+ young people and Tuakana Teina for young people with a parent in prison.

Monday morning meetings with Uncle Api led to other initiatives. High imprisonment rates among Ngāti Porou men, and their expressed wish to reconnect to iwi, led to a programme to reintegrate former inmates.

It began with Te Reo courses in Hawke’s Bay men’s prison and evolved to individual plans incorporating employment - or help with WINZ appointments if work wasn’t there - accommodation and whatever else was needed to help the men resettle, reconnect and take control of their lives.

Mongrel Mob mums began with a conversation about the struggle to put kai on the table, leading to the establishment of community gardens to provide food.

The work was always focused on making whānau resilient, she says. And although Uncle Api has now passed “his dreams and aspirations live within me”.