Untitled

Press, 17 August 1978, Page 6

Constable Pat O’Halloran is one policeman who is not going to become bogged down in paperwork. Constable O’Halloran, who is shown out on his new beat, is New Brighton’s first police community liaison officer. He has been given free rein to leave his desk behind and roam the streets, schools, and shops of the suburb.

“You will see me round everywhere, and I hope people will come to me for a talk, for advice, and for anything at all that is bothering them,” he told more than 60 New Brighton businessmen and residents who turned up at the Central New Brighton School yesterday to meet him. Constable O’Halloran is the sixth community

liaison officer to be appointed in suburban Christchurch. Relations between the police and the public had suffered through the phasing out of suburban stations, said the acting head of the Christchurch police district (Detective Chief Superintendent E. G. Perry). “But by appointing community liaison officers the

police are getting back into the streets — back in touch with the people,” said Mr Perry. Constable O’Halloran has been a policeman for 23 years — the last five of them at New Brighton. “I know a lot of people here already, and I am going to meet a lot more,” he said yesterday.