A Waitematā School Community Officer in a Police Rainbow vehicle is being praised for spiking a car that was being driven recklessly and putting pedestrians and other motorists at risk.
Senior Constable John Walker was returning from Waimakuku School road patrol training on 13 March when he was made aware of other units planning to stop the offending Audi.
Hearing the car was approaching their location, John parked up and safely deployed the tyre deflation device.
The end result: the offending Audi was spiked, all four tyres were deflated, the car came to a halt 100 metres down the road and the driver surrendered.
Fellow School Community Officer Bryan Ward was alongside John at the time.
“Much to everyone’s mirth, out roll the old dogs and as an attending officer stated, ‘you are the Rainbow car guys. We didn’t even think you had spikes onboard’,” says Bryan.
Just the day before, John had sharpened his skills with the latest Police driver training.
“Senior Constable Walker not only deployed the spikes safely and without risk to anyone, but more importantly has probably shown us all that despite being the ‘JB’ [junior boy] in the car at 57 years young and 26 years’ service, by using a little ‘old dog magic’ and staying current with his training that you are never “too old for this”, as Danny Glover once said in Lethal Weapon," says Bryan.
A 25-year-old man has been remanded in custody on multiple charges, including operating a motor vehicle recklessly, possession of methamphetamine, and burglary.