Contributing: Calling on ethnic communities to join community patrols - NZ Police
(caption for the above picture: Manish Pandey - originally from India who became part of community patrol four years ago - sitting in front (on right); picture courtesy Manish Pandey
"My experience has been beyond my imagination, as I have made good friends, learnt about different cultures, and contributed to societal well-being," Pandey says.)
Joining Community Patrols, which is a volunteer group providing an extra set of eyes and ears for NZ Police, is also a great way to contribute towards society. In Canterbury there are 17 Community Patrol Groups and a total of 148 nationwide. There are seven Metro Patrols within the city boundaries, covering areas South from Timaru, Twizel, Geraldine, Ashburton to areas North as far as Rangiora, Kaiapoi and Hamner Springs.
“We want to recruit new migrants onto patrols which we hope will help them fit into the local community and enable them to meet new people. The training for this is three months long, during which the volunteers learn about health and safety, observation and patrolling skills. The main purpose of the patrol is to deter, delay, deny and detect any crime from happening. On average, volunteers contribute about 10 hours every month – two 5 hour shifts - doing community patrols,” informed Helen Todd, who is NZ Police's Community Patrol Coordinator for the Canterbury region.
