Officer takes youth aid role
Jeremy Poynter says he wants people to approach him if they need help.
So the Tu¯ rangi youth aid constable makes a point of getting out and about as often as he can, usually on foot, to show his face around town, pop in to see people and be seen. He says he wants people to get to know him.
Being visible is helped by Tu¯ rangi’s small size.
“Yesterday I walked all around town, walked to both schools and talked to the kids on the way back. I talk to people, I talk to kids all the time. If I can, I’d like to be out of the station all the time. I go out walking and pop in and see families to see how they’re doing.
“I want people to approach me. I tell people all the time: ‘here’s my card, give me a call’.”
Jeremy’s always worked in people-oriented jobs. First he became an occupational therapist, working in mental health and paediatric occupational therapy.
But, feeling that wasn’t quite the right fit, he changed careers to police officer.
“I’m still working with people like I was as an occupational therapist but in a different context. I can use those skills to help guide people moving forward.”
He began his policing career in the Pukekohe/Counties Manukau area nine years ago. Two years ago, wanting a change, he and his family (he has two young children) moved to Tu¯ rangi.
Jeremy says the move wasn’t just about lifestyle, although that was part of it. He says working in a small town allows police to actually help people rather than policing in a big town, which can be more about putting band aids onto problems.
Jeremy took up the youth aid role in August, replacing Mere Lambert. He describes youth aid as trying to empower people to change rather than doing everything for them and says a youth aid officer has two main roles.
“We are guided by the Oranga Tamariki Act so whatever’s in the Act is pretty much what we do, so we work in the care and protection of kids that are needing some support where their family life might not be that good. It’s the wellbeing and best interests of the child or young person that’s paramount in what we do.”
Jeremy also works with a group of professionals from agencies such as Oranga Tamariki, Korowai Aroha and REAL together in a group called Mana Rangatahi Mana Tu¯ rangi. It uses a team approach and works with local children who need some extra intervention.
As a police officer, Jeremy sees the effects of family harm on children and says the objective is to stop the cycle repeating.
“If all you know when you communicate with someone is to shout at them, that’s just how you communicate. If Dad shouts at Mum all the time and Mum says ‘I love you’ then that’s how it is in the future. It’s trying to break that cycle because that’s not a normal relationship.”
Jeremy says children are typically present at half of all family harm episodes and they are particularly vulnerable to family harm, including seeing or hearing harm against others. Some of the impacts on children who have been exposed to family harm include difficulty learning, becoming an offender or victim, increased chance of mental illness and suicide, increased chance of alcohol and/or drug addiction.
As well as care and protection, Jeremy also works with young people who come to police attention through offending.
Jeremy says the aim is to get them to take responsibility for what they have done and keep them out of court if possible.
“We meet with the family and try and make a plan where they [the youth] is at the centre of the plan. Getting family and wha¯ nau support to do that is half the problem.”
If the young person won’t take responsibility, a family group conference is called and the youth may wind up in Youth Court or Rangatahi Court (a marae-based court held in Taupo¯ ), although a serious crime will go straight to court.
Jeremy says the reasons behind youth offending can sometimes be quite simple.
“I have talked to some adults that have started offending because mum and dad were out on the booze and there wasn’t food for the family so they broke into the house next door and stole food. And when the parents came home and saw the food they said ‘well done’, and that was the only praise they’d ever had.”
Jeremy says he doesn’t believe there’s a problem with youth offending in Tu¯ rangi at present.
“Touch wood, I don’t think so at the moment. It’s minor stuff. My biggest thing at the moment is kids trying to have fights with each other and step each other out and dishonesty stuff like people stealing from shops and things.
“At the moment there hasn’t been very many things happening but you just need one kid and it can all change.”
Jeremy plans to devote a lot of time to addressing truancy when the 2020 school year starts.
“Next year in the first term I want to have emails from the schools straight away saying ‘this person’s not at school’, and then I’ll be going to visit. I work well with [Tu¯ rangi truancy officer] Melissa Tupara and she will ring me if we need to do a home visit and talk to some parents.”
Jeremy says success for him, is when children at risk are safe and when a youth only offends once and does not go on to become a repeat offender. “Some of the people I worked with in the past, they were prolific offenders and hit 17 and stopped and never did it again.”
He says it’s really important for young people to feel that others believe that they can succeed. “Hope is everything. When I worked in mental health sometimes family members had given up on them. What do you do when people don’t have hope for you?”