Even so, he expects that stepping into the large shoes of Wellington District’s retiring field officer, JJ Taylor, will bring new challenges.

He’s looking forward to getting out and about more after spending the past year on secondment to the Police Association as an industrial officer. Although the industrial role has given him a good overview of the Association, he’s not one for sitting behind a desk for too long.

Ron, 56, is one of those men who always wanted to be a police officer. He reveals, somewhat coyly, that as an eight year old in Timaru, he was snapped by a local newspaper photographer who was bemused by the sight of a boy on skates, wearing a plastic police helmet and carrying a plastic truncheon, cruising the streets checking on expired parking meters.

Ron joined Police straight out of school and was posted to Timaru in 1975 where he spent nine years, including several stints relieving at rural stations such as Twizel, which was a bit of a cowboy town full of construction workers. “I honed my communication skills there,” he recalls drily.

He ended up in Wellington Central in 1985 on section. He also worked in comms and relieved as a section sergeant.

Over six years he filled a variety of frontline roles, including with the Combined Investigation Unit, Strategic Response Group and Patrol Group.

In 2000 he was appointed OC of the newly formed Beat Section based in Wellington’s lower Cuba St. It was the sort of active, team role that Ron had always enjoyed and his team achieved some excellent results, with a noticeable drop in street crime.

“The team makes the job,” he says. “We had wonderful team dynamics and were able to have a lot of good times, even in serious situations where we were dealing with the ugly side of policing.”

As a team leader, Ron is known for his even-tempered, laid-back style that gets the job done and produces good outcomes.

He comes from a Dutch background, his parents having emigrated here from Holland in 1952. “I always knew I was slightly different because of our Dutch upbringing,” he says, “but I view it as having been a very positive influence.”

In 2004, Ron was asked to join the Diplomatic Protection Squad. He soon found himself in plainclothes, dealing with high-profile people and spending a lot of time away from home and family during overseas deployments that included: the Beijing Olympics with Governor General Anand Satyanand; a political summit in South Africa with Helen Clark; Apec conferences in Sydney and Singapore; accompanying Prime Minister John Key to New York in 2009: and attending the Pacific Islands Forum with former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard.

Nothing untoward happened during the eight years he worked for the DPS, but much of that was because of good intel and meticulous planning, he says.

He’s full of praise for the DPS, saying he has seen it turn into a world-class service with very high professional standards. It had been disheartening to see the service come under pressure after 2011 because of Police budget cuts.

Since 2012, Ron has been working at the Association’s National Office in Wellington, but his involvement with the organisation began 20 years ago.
He started as a committee member and went on to be a delegate, secretary, treasurer, chairman, Region 5 deputy director and Region 5 director.

At home, Ron and his wife, Suzanne, are parents to triplets – two boys and a girl, now 16 – and Ron has recently taken up karate again after a long gap. So, when we say he’s got plenty of experience under his belt, that’s quite true –
26 years ago, he was a Seido karate brown belt and he’s a 4th kyu green belt now.

As an eight year old in Timaru he was snapped by a local newspaper photographer who was bemused by the sight of a boy on skates, wearing a plastic police helmet and carrying a plastic truncheon, cruising the streets checking on expired parking meters.