A local heads Niue's police force for the first time in 8 years

Transcript

Niue, after eight years with a New Zealander as police chief, has appointed a local to the position.

Tony Kose can bring a wealth of experience to the position, including a total of four years in Solomon Islands, working with the Regional Assistance Mission's Participating Police Force.

Mr Kose says his immediate predecessors, Ross Ardern and Mark Chenery, had been brought in after Niue and New Zealand signed the Halavaka Agreement in 2004, signalling a strengthened level of co-operation.

He told Don Wiseman one of the Niue government's requests was for a New Zealander to serve as police chief, but with a specific, long-term aim.

TONY KOSE: They wanted to identify one of the locals to take over in the long run. So I think their job was to ensure that, by seeing a potential local to take over, they were to take them through that succession planning and to ensure that they cover all aspects of policing to localise the position.

DON WISEMAN: It, presumably, is the most ideal situation to have a local in the position?

TK: It's always ideal. But in saying that, do we have the capability to localise the position? So this was part of that plan. In the long run that's what they did.

DW: Niue, of course, is a very tiny place, but over the last few years there have been some quite serious crimes committed, haven't there? Do you find that a little intimidating?

TK: Well, there has been certain cases where it has gotten out of hand. But in saying that, we try our best to police it. And also during that time, we did have a New Zealand policeman who was the chief back then. He was amongst that when the incidents all took place.

DW: I think what I meant, really, was is the force big enough to handle everything that might go on on the island?

TK: Oh, yes. Certainly. We are a strength of 14 police officers, and when you think about it the ratio is quite high. But then in saying that, it's a good number for policing in in Niue. It's like any other big country who's screaming out for police officers. But I feel that we do have the strength and the capability to handle any case that goes on over here.

DW: You yourself talking about other countries situations, you spent quite a lot of time in the Solomon Islands with the RAMSI team?

TK: Yes, I've spent a total of four years in the Solomon Islands with RAMSI. The first time I was over there I was basically the team co-ordinator for team policing. And the team policing was really needed back then because it was so hostile and it was still fresh. And then I was thrown into the deep end where I did a lot of the outreach stuff. And on my second round in 2009 I became close protection team co-ordinator for the Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands. This time that I was down there, it sort of built my experiences in management and leadership and so on. There's a lot of things that did happen in the Solomon Islands that we don't usually get here in Niue, so it sort of built me up for that, as well.