The Wellington based Police Media Centre will be operating normally 6am-11pm throughout the holiday period, including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
The Auckland hub will be closed from December 24 and re-open on January 4.
The Wellington team will be the point of contact for all media inquiries including Auckland during this period.
The contacts are:
04 238 5111
media@police.govt.nz
Please note the old out-of-hours pager number which some of you may still have in your contacts was discontinued earlier this year and should not be used.
Although our hours are unchanged during the holiday period, we will have reduced staffing.
Our staffing numbers partially reflect the media call volumes from last year’s holiday season. Please bear with us if we have not got this quite right for what will be our first year of operation over the main holiday period.
As usual during the break we are likely to only be able to assist with operational events, emergencies and investigations. The majority of support staff who deal with issues such as policy, statistics, strategy and other support services will be on leave.
Since the Police Media Centre began operating on May 16 this year we have:
• Dealt with 10,569 events and media responses.
• Taken 26,271 calls.
• Issued 2,703 media releases.
As we approach our first anniversary in May 2017 we hope to get around all the police districts to discuss with media how the current arrangements are working. Further details will be advised closer to the time.
In the meantime the media team and I wish you all a safe and happy festive season.
Grant Ogilvie
National Manager: Media Relations.