Rakaia residents have vowed to keep fighting to retain their sole police officer position in the face of a Canterbury restructure.
People aired concerns at a meeting held by the Rakaia Community Association last week.
About 100 attended, including three senior area police personnel.
Senior Sergeant Janine Bowden, Inspector Vicki Walker and Inspector Peter Cooper spoke about the proposed changes and answered questions.
Chair Neil Pluck said the meeting was not heated, ‘‘but it came close’’.
Residents felt ‘‘blindsided’’. They were in disbelief and worried about the restructure, which would see the current sole police officer position at Rakaia become a traffic policing position.
‘‘It’s given a big element of distrust,’’ he said.
The town had its own police officer based in the town for decades, who helped keep it crime-free.
As an example, the town’s current officer Senior Constable Trevor Gurney had come up with an idea of installing CCTV cameras in Rakaia.
The association had taken this project on and had so far fundraised about $16,000 to pay for about 15 cameras; more were to be installed.
About 15 residents individually took to the microphone at the meeting, some giving anecdotes of how Gurney had helped them in various situations.
Submissions to police on the proposal closed on Monday and more than 1000 submissions had been received Canterbury-wide.
Pluck said the association and many residents had made submissions, but he was not confident they would make a difference.
The community would keep fighting to retain its officer.
‘‘I’m sitting here holding my breath that common sense will prevail,’’ Pluck said.
Meanwhile, the Methven Community Board has also made a submission after holding a similar public meeting last week, also attended by senior police personnel.
The restructure would see one of Methven’s two current police officer positions go to Ashburton, and the remaining one officer position become a rural liaison role.
Chair Kelvin Holmes said many of the about 70 residents who attended had concerns slower response times would result from the changes.
He said the community board was keeping a ‘‘watching brief’’ to make sure this would not be the case and that residents would continue to be wellserved.
‘‘I think it will be naive to think the status quo will remain,’’ Holmes said.
A police spokesperson said submissions were now being read and collated ‘‘to help inform the future decision-making process’’.
