There’s no routine day for a police officer, Sergeant Tony Mumford says. But as he celebrates 40 years with the New Zealand Police and looks ahead to his upcoming retirement, the Thames officer says he has loved every minute of his career.
Tony began his policing career in Palmerston North and Feilding, after graduating from the Police College in 1985. But he soon found his way to Thames, and for the last 26 years he has relished his role in the small town.
“There’s really good community support here – 99 per cent of my career has been in small towns and working with the community is the thing that I like about small town policing,” he said.
“Because of the knowledge that you have of the community and that the community has of you, you can use any skills that you might have to get around into different resolutions.”
Tony’s current role as Prevention Supervisor has him overseeing three youth aid officers, three community constables, a school community officer and the Thames watch officer. Together, the team covers Thames, Paeroa and Waihī.
The role involves a lot of outreach with local youth, one of Tony’s lifelong passions.
“Getting young people at the right age and preventing them from becoming offenders is a whole lot more productive than dealing with them when they’re 20 years old, running around committing offences,” he said.
“Way back when I first started, you targeted the youth that were offenders… they got arrested and dealt with through the criminal justice system. Over the years there’s been a complete flip-flop and now we do everything we can to keep them out of that system, whether it’s helping them get a driver’s licence or doing whatever we can because once they’re in it, they find it really hard to get out.”
Tony has always had youths in his life. Besides his own two sons, he and his wife have been foster parents to over a dozen young people, both formally and informally.
“We’d have friends that had a problem with their kids, so we’d take them for a few months and have a bit of time off for them and stuff like that,” he said.
“Anything that I’ve done has really been around youth, and that is something that I really get enjoyment out of.”
It’s not all about young people though, and Tony said he’s had many other memorable experiences in his years of service.
“In 2012, I did a six-month deployment to Bougainville as the team leader of one of the police teams there… helping them rebuild their policing services since the conflict back 30 years ago now. That’s six months away, living in a completely totally foreign environment – experiences like that are just invaluable.”
And on New Zealand soil, the work has been just as interesting. Alongside armed incidents, traffic stops and community outreach, Tony has worked on helicopters and provided security at the Commonwealth Games and other high-profile events.
“Back in the days we used to use helicopters and hang by a chain under a helicopter to do cannabis recovery, that was pretty good fun. And the adrenaline rate was always up through the roof,” he said.
“At the Tina Turner concert in Palmerston North I shut the whole concert down after it had been going about half an hour, because there was a bomb scare. I was rather new, I think I was still a Constable and Acting Sergeant at the time when I got the call.”
Thames has also had its fair share of interesting work days.
“We were only in Thames for about six weeks when we had the first major flood. You obviously learn how to deal with incident management, with cyclones and floods,” he said.
“And obviously here we have our fair share of fatal crashes because of our roads and the way our people drive, unfortunately. It stays with you. It’s not something that you want to stay with you, but you can’t do anything about it.
“Right from when I first joined, I’ve tried not to take the job home. But [my wife’s] pretty good. She knows when I’ve had a day that I need some support from, she can pick it straight away, and things have been like that ever since I joined.”
Tony will be stepping down from active duty in December, ahead of his official retirement in mid-2025. He plans to stay involved with the community though, and said he has already had a few offers to get involved in some youth-based projects in the area. There’s also fishing, diving, and close family nearby to keep him busy.
“There’s always something to do here.”
