Well, we certainly seem to be doing better than the rest of the world in the Covid-19 stakes. Being a little island at the bottom of the world looks even better than usual, but it hasn’t stopped what appears to be a bit of a shambles around the quarantine hotels and what security actually means.

I was surprised to learn how many New Zealanders are still coming home, so perhaps everyone was caught by surprise. Speaking to mates around the country who are having to deploy staff to these hotels, it’s apparent that police are being pulled from all over the show and this will have an effect, especially given it could go on for months or more.

I also heard a pretty disturbing story about two cops who located one of the hotel runaways. No one seemed to have any idea of the protocols, so the officers ended up in isolation in different hotels – one in a centre for those who have tested positive. Then the Ministry of Health lost one of the officer’s tests, so had to do it again.

We have been lucky so far to have had so few colleagues infected, but I would expect that by now we would know what the contingency plans are when we are put at risk. I hope the association is demanding clear protocols from Police before agreeing to have staff working at these facilities.

Crypto crime

I’ve done a few jobs in my longish career, but one area I’m pretty sure they won’t be asking me to join is the cybercrime team. My two-fingered typing into Mr Google wouldn’t get us far, so I take my hat off to those very clever investigators from this group and the financial crime team who tracked down $140 million in crypto currency that some foreign crook was trying to hide here. Great stuff. The $140m might cover that extra 1000 cops Winston has just promised…

Matt’s funeral

You couldn’t help but be moved by Matt Hunt’s funeral. His mates and family let us get to know a little piece of him. His sergeant showed what an impact one person can have on our team, and the haka and guard of honour spoke for all of us who couldn’t be there.