There’s more to Blue Light than discos...
In 2023, the organisation celebrated 40 years of work with Police and Kiwi youth, which may have started with Blue Light discos but has grown into something much more far-reaching.
It was a big year which also saw the signing of a refreshed Memorandum of Understanding, re-stating Police’s commitment to the close, close partnership.
And it was a year of change in the top team, with long-serving CEO and former police officer Rod Bell standing down and passing the baton to Chief Operating Officer Brendon Crompton.
From the outset, Police has been at the heart of Blue Light. “The Commissioner of Police is our Patron – he signed the MOU as both Commissioner and Patron,” says Brendon.
“There are six sworn members of Police on our board. We have 78 branches and the chair of each branch must be a sworn member of Police – that’s how intimately involved Police are in the partnership.”
Importantly, the MoU states that Police staff can take part in Blue Light activities on work time.
“Police are the integral component – otherwise we say we’d be the Girl Guides without cookies.”
There are still discos, but there are also - to name a few - tramping, camping, a farm programme, waka ama, driver licensing, Duke of Edinburgh Awards, life skills camps in partnership with Defence, leadership training, Kids Gone Fishin’, PCT Fear Factor, a short film competition… the list goes on.
For the brave there’s bungee. An agreement with adventure company AJ Hackett gives Blue Light 10 free jumps on the first Monday of the month in Auckland, Queenstown and Taupō, underlining the degree of commercial buy-in.
There’s an international element. in 2023, Blue Light hosted police and young people from Scotland and Australia – a week of leadership training and a week of living the Kiwi cultural experience. A return trip to Scotland is planned.
The past 10 years have seen enormous growth, from 54 branches to the current 78. The organisation now has 120 staff and around 10 of its branches employ coordinators.
Plenty of positive stories from the Blue Light PCT challenge held in Hamilton in September.
This expansion has been driven largely by Blue Light’s contracts with government, offering programmes and services to the likes of Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry for Social Development as well as Police.
In terms of work alongside Police, Blue Light is involved in some serious prevention work, for example tackling chronic truancy in South Auckland through joint home visits.
“As a project, we employ 17 staff,” says Brendon. “We’ll get a list of say 400 kids who aren’t at school and we’ll partner with the local police - Youth Aid, Youth Services, Community staff - and we’ll do 400 home visits.
“Chronic truants often end up being chronic offenders but we’re also doing it with a family harm lens.
“If you can’t see the kids, what’s happening at those homes? Why aren’t they at school? We’ve had a number of care and protection referrals post-home visits because the kids are neglected or there’s something going on at home.”
Blue Light uses an intervention it calls Strengthening Families to work with whānau. “Police don’t need to come back. Police help us get in the door and we do the work to re-engage the kid back into school.
“That’s an example of how good the partnership is and how we both achieve our goals.”
Snapshots of a few of the many Blue Light activities which have taken place around New Zealand over the past year.
Elsewhere, Blue Light is involved in Police Pathway, the NCEA course offered by schools in partnership with Police since 2018 to give Year 13 students insights into policing and a potential Police career. Some alumni are now serving on the front line.
A lot has changed since those first discos, says Rod, but Police staff’s desire to do their best for their communities has remained a consistent driving force.
“By chance it was 40 years ago that I joined Police,” he says. “I didn’t know anything about Blue Light, like a lot of young cops, for about 10 years.
“But the thing that’s stayed consistent is that cops join Police to make a difference in their community.
“The range of work Blue Light does has grown immensely but the base point of ‘cops, kids and community’ - those three words have not changed.”
“There were plenty of cops from my time and before who were a major influence, supporting kids in their communities to build better relationships and make a difference.
“I think that’s the consistent thing over the years - cops still having a real heart to make a difference for kids in their community despite what they see every day.
"That’s the part that still surprises me.”
The National Chair of Blue Light is Senior Sergeant Alan Rowland, Auckland West Youth and Community Coordinator. He says Blue Light is a win-win, for both the young people and the Police staff involved.
“Blue Light provides great opportunities for Police and local communities to work together with a wide variety of young people and help them into positive lives,” he says.
“This allows our Police people to see the positives and spend time with positive people from our communities - many find this helps them ‘refill the glass’ when so often in their day-to-day work they are confronted by the negatives.
“Blue Light programmes work with a wide variety of young people, from those who are assisted with scholarships to develop their talents through to those who have committed serious offences and are being assisted to transition from custody back into the community.
“There are many positive stories that come from that work.”