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time investigating homicides in the CIB.
After 23 years in the police, including seven with the Criminal Investigations Bureau, Inspector Matt Laurenson, 45, says it was the right time to try something new.
He became the Waitemata North Area Commander, based in Orewa, a month ago after working as acting Area Commander in Waitakere.
Although he grew up mainly in Taranaki and Hawkes Bay, Matt says with both parents teaching, he has lived in many places from the north to the deep south.
When he moved to Auckland in 1999 as a young constable, he had only visited the city once before and that was to attend a Warriors game.
Matt and his family – wife, Anne, and young daughter, Mila – are living on the North Shore, but were previously on the Hibiscus Coast for seven years.
His Waitemata North patch includes the Hibiscus Coast and Rodney, north to Mangawhai. He says he is finding it refreshing after his time in the city, with different issues to the fore in rural areas.
With his feet newly under the desk vacated by Inspector Mark Fergus, Matt is making contacts with local organisations and iwi as a priority. So far, he has noted that the business community, iwi and local politicians are approachable and provide good feedback.
Matt says the 105 police across the region are sufficient for the job at hand.
This will be bolstered by five new recruits, most of them locals, who started at the start of the month.
Matt does not expect Waitemata North will lose many Police due to the Covid-19 mandate, which requires them to be fully vaccinated.
“Initially, the number of officers reluctant to be vaccinated was a bit scary, but as time has gone on more have got the jabs,” he says.
One of Matt’s early tasks was heading up an incident management team to deal with Omicron planning, staffing and logistics.
He says it is a process Police are familiar with after lockdowns and this time, under the Red setting, they have had an opportunity to “get in front of Omicron before it hits the community”.
The plans include ensuring there is cover should Omicron put members of the team into isolation. This means creating bubbles, and ramping up the wearing of PPE within the station and on operations.
