Mid Canterbury is destined to get four more frontline officers under restructure proposals by New Zealand Police.
But the current sole police officer position at Rakaia would become a traffic policing position, while one of the two current police officer positions at Methven would go to Ashburton.
The proposal has caused concern, one community representative calling it ‘‘a bloody disgrace’’.
It involves separating out policing roles to the three areas of frontline 24/7 on-call response, traffic policing and rural liaison.
Ashburton police station would have five new officer positions in frontline response. Four would be new positions, one would be from Methven.
Methven police station’s remaining one officer position would become a rural liaison role.
Rakaia police station’s sole police officer would become a traffic policing position, the police station becoming a base for traffic and rural liaison officers.
Resident Cassie Keen-Gorman started a petition ‘‘Keep our rural cop in Rakaia’’ on Monday night, which received more than 800 signatures by early afternoon on Tuesday.
‘‘These cuts are threatening the role of our only rural police officer,’’ she said.
Rakaia Community Association Neil Pluck welcomed the petition. He said the proposal for the town was ‘‘a bloody disgrace’’.
‘‘It’s just a traffic cop, what about the general stuff that goes on around here?’’ Pluck said.
‘‘The local bobby is a really important part of a well functioning community on so many levels.’’
In Methven, resident Richie Owen, who is deputy chair of the Methven Community Board, said he wanted to see details of the proposal.
‘‘It’s a concern when we talk about reduction in police numbers (based in Methven) when statistically we have a big increase in population in our area at the moment,’’ Owen said.
Canterbury Police District Commander Superintendent Tony Hill said the proposal had been 18 months in the making.
‘‘I see this proposal as really helpful for Mid Canterbury, because it sees an uplift in the frontline response numbers,’’ Hill said.
And the creation of rural liaison roles would give depth to police’s role of dealing with problems in the rural sector, while traffic roles would help with the large area of road policing which traditionally took up a lot of officer time.
In Mid Canterbury, no sworn officers would lose their jobs and no police stations would close.
– Let New Zealand Police know what you think of the restructuring proposal, email canterbury. [email protected]
