Karen Henrikson

Inspector Karen Henrikson joined the New Zealand Police in 1983 as part of Wing 88.

During her time with the Police Karen has worked in Porirua, Tokoroa and Hamilton in the Public Safety Team, Investigations, and Prevention. In 2008 she was promoted to Inspector, the first female in the Waikato District to reach this rank. In 2012 Karen was awarded the "Most Outstanding Female Leader" in the Australasian Excellence in Policing Awards, held in Canberra, Australia.

Karen is currently the Operations Support Manager for Waikato. In this role Karen is responsible for a variety of areas within the Waikato District, including Case Management, Firearms Licensing, and Search and Rescue. She works closely with Civil Defence and Emergency Services planning for possible major incidents, as well as the planning of major events such as VIP tours, international sporting events and local community events. She is also on the District Leadership Team, which make decisions on the District’s focus and priorities.

Outside of her role at Police, Karen has been heavily involved with netball. She is an ex-Silver Fern and has also coached teams for Waikato. Karen says that coaching is comparative to managing staff, as it involves managing different personalities, setting goals, strategising, motivating, teaching, and providing constructive feedback to enable high performance.

In recent years Karen has taken a step back from netball to focus on her career, however she still enjoys watching games in her spare time. She also enjoys off-road cycling, gardening and fishing.