Pauline Joblin, QSM

Pauline Joblin joined the police in 1964 when institutional attitudes towards policewomen were beginning to improve. While some police saw women with their 'inferior strength' a liability, others were more accepting, observing that women did not shirk the more unpleasant tasks.

One dangerous and unpleasant task was acting as a decoy to catch abortionists. On one occasion Pauline, using an assumed name, arranged to get an abortion from a woman who was also running a legitimate business – a home for the elderly. She paid £25 in marked notes for the procedure and went to the window hoping to be seen by waiting detectives, while the woman collected the equipment. No-one was there.

When the woman returned Pauline asked to use the toilet and climbed out the window phoning the Takapuna police from a neighbouring house. A message was radioed to the unseen Criminal Investigation Branch who finally entered the home and arrested the woman almost an hour after Pauline had arrived at the address.

During the late 1970s Pauline was a Youth Aid officer and participated in the occupation of Bastion Point which occurred after the government wanted to sub-divide Ngāti Whātua land for private housing. Ngāti Whātua iwi occupied the land for several months.

Pauline was one of the 600 police officers forming a cordon around the camp after a Supreme Court injunction that the protesters leave the land. It took police all day to clear the camp site, making 222 arrests.

Pauline served for 23 years initially in both Wellington and Auckland and was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for her work as chair of the Police Benevolent Fund and for her time on the Centennial Trust Committee.