At the top of their fields
Retiring after 44 years a well-known Taupo¯ couple reflect on their work in the community.
There’s a lifetime of stories about Bay of Plenty District Manager: Operations Support, Inspector Kevin Taylor, 61.
The Taupo¯ -based Police Inspector has just retired from 44 years’ service. He joined in 1975 starting in Auckland transferring to Taupo¯ , and ever since, the Bay of Plenty Police District has been home.
His career has included deployments to Gallipoli,
Tuvalu and Afghanistan. It was as the Police Security Liaison Officer for Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli that he recalls a particularly poignant moment.
“I was standing on Anzac Cove for the first time, 93 years after my grandfather had stood in the same spot. At that time, he would have been the same age as one of my sons and I was thinking what on earth would have been going through his head. That was very moving.”
Kevin has 25 year’s experience in search and rescue and talks of the “absolutely amazing people” he’s worked with in SAR over the years.
“In my search and rescue days
in the Taupo¯ area we had a fatal shooting in the bush. The guys had been in, done the body recovery, it was dark, cold and wet. We eventually found his wife and told her, and her first comment was ‘are the boys ok?’
He’d had two pre-teen sons with him and they were at a bivvy site… and we didn’t know that. So at 10 o’clock at night the boys went back into the bush to find them and spend the night with them.”
His 20 years in road policing included 11 years as Districts Road Policing Manager.
He led change with partner agencies to conceive, launch and embed safety features on highrisk roads. Many are now commonplace, including rumble stripes and cats eyes. He speaks highly of the dedicated staff who deal with road crashes.
“There’s not many roads I can drive around the Bay of Plenty that I don’t have a memory of a day or a night where I’ve stood on the side of the road with staff dealing with utter tragedy. ” So how does he deal with tragedy?
“I have a very good family, amazing wife (Raewyn Tayor), strong faith and supportive social networks. I’ve developed a fairly robust personal resilience and I just cope with it.”
One mantra he shares with his kids is that life isn’t a dress rehearsal.
“You don’t get to live today again. You have a choice. You can get disappointed about what could have been or you focus on what is, and make the most of it. I’ve chosen to focus on what is. I’m comfortable with who and what I am and that’s a consequence of the good, the bad and the ugly that’s happened to me through the years. It’s all about choice.”
Kevin has a long list of charitable, church and victimrelated support work on his CV and countless hours of time dedicated to the Awhina Society, which runs Taupo¯ women’s refuge and community foodbank and the annual Ironman and the Lake Taupo¯ Cycle Challenge events.
Kevin and Raewyn’s youngest daughter Claire graduated from Police College in February and has been posted to Taupo¯ . Son David and his wife Cathy are both police officers in Counties Manukau.
Kevin describes his time in Police very simply: “It’s been a cool ride.”
■ Courtesy of Police Ten-One magazine.