Honouring a community constable
The life of Porirua’s quintessential community constable, Aporo Joyce, will be treasured in a research file at the national police museum.
Joyce was a long-time police officer, former president of the Porirua RSA and chairman of the Cannons Creek Residents and Ratepayers Association.
He received a Queen’s Service Medal for public services in 1986.
Alison Cooper, 76, hit and killed the 79-year-old after not seeing him on a pedestrian crossing not far from his home in Tawa last June.
Speaking on what would have been Joyce’s 80th birthday on Wednesday last week, his wife Brenda Joyce said she had found ‘‘all sorts of police stuff’’ at their home after he died and had decided to give it to the museum.
Museum director Rowan Carroll said that with help from family the museum had ‘‘built up quite a decent file’’ on Joyce and his life.
The museum’s research already detailed his time in the police’s UN mission to Cyprus where he met Brenda who was working there as a nurse between 1964 and 1965.
The file now includes everything from old newspaper clippings and photos to details of career highlights.
It will be digitised and avail- able on request for people looking to learn more about his life.
The museum kept research - not personnel - files covering the careers of numerous notable police officers because people were often interested to learn about them.
‘‘Often with police officers, they would’ve kept a file of their career and often, once they have died, the family think what should we do with this?
‘‘Often when people pass, we look after the file for their loved ones,’’ Carroll said.
‘‘Aporo was so integral to particularly the Cannons Creek community, but he also had quite an incredible career beyond that with the police.’’
Joyce later helped drive projects to improve life for Cannons Creek residents.
These included lighting the shopping centre at night, fixing broken footpaths and improving traffic safety.