Problems in perspective

Porirua doesn’t know how lucky it is when it comes to crime, says the city’s former police chief John Spence.

Whitby’s Mr Spence returned in December from East Timor where he spent a year working for the United Nations, helping the troubled South- East Asian country establish a community police force.

New Zealand police have much to teach Timor’s bootcamp style cops, who have a reactive rather than a proactive attitude, Mr Spence said.

From 2000 to 2011 Mr Spence was area commander of Kapiti- Mana police. The mean streets of Porirua were nothing compared to his time in Timor’s capital, Dili, where tempers are quick and weapons numerous, he said.

‘‘It was the Wild West you know, the way they argue with each other over there. They have rock fights and there’s lots of ammunition lying around, and villagers rock each other. One guy shot a Glock [pistol] down the main road and hit four people, at midday on a weekday.’’

The violence was worse the first time Mr Spence went to Timor, in 2006, to help control Dili after nine Timorese police officers were murdered by the army in the street.

‘‘ The whole country just imploded,’’ he said.

Five years later there were new restaurants and malls everywhere, and the city’s four camps for civil war refugees had gone.

‘‘Definitely the country had improved, there were more buildings; it was more stable,’’ he says.

Since Timor gained independence from Indonesia in 1999, 180,000 Timorese have died in civil war and unrest.

The country lacks infrastructure and needs to rebuild from scratch – it’s like New Zealand was 12 years after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, Mr Spence said. ‘‘For them it’s 1852.’’ Violence and domestic violence are the country’s biggest types of crime.

‘‘It put New Zealand’s problems in perspective.

‘‘Everyone said we’re very lucky, we don’t realise how lucky we are.’’

Mr Spence loved his time in Timor, especially the opportunity to work alongside police officers from all over the globe.

‘‘It was a huge experience and it was lots of fun. It was mixing and meeting with local people, and meeting people from all over the world.’’

The friendly Kiwi police were hugely popular with Timorese people, he said. ‘‘You walk down the street, it’s kia ora, kia ora, ka pai.’’

Mr Spence begins his new operations and emergency preparedness role with the Wellington police this month.

Kiwi greeting: Meeting international police officers was a highlight of Porirua police officer John Spence’s time in Timor – here he shares a hongi with a Nigerian colleague.

Popular cops: Timorese kids loved New Zealand police officers, calling ‘‘kia ora’’ and ‘‘ka pai’’ to them on the street, John Spence said.