Wellington City Council launched the Pōneke Promise programme in 2021 with the aim of making the CBD safer.
“Businesses and of course local residents were feeling unsafe and they wanted to create a safer environment in the city,” says mayor Tory Whanau.
One answer is a new partnership between the council, Wellington Free Ambulance and Wellington District Police, that will see cops and paramedics team up on Friday and Saturday nights to patrol Courtney Place and its surrounds.
Sergeant Will Buchanan leads the team, and says it’s a positive initiative.
“It’s a game-changer for police in terms of our times, it’s a game-changer for WFA in terms of their response times, it’s a game-changer for the way the public are able to get the help that they might need immediately.”
Emergency services working together is hardly new, but traditionally paramedics would remain a small distance away from the action, ready to be called up.
But last year’s protest and occupation at parliament changed that, with a trial put in place where paramedics were paired up with police on the frontline.
“They were trained up to such a level that they could work in what you might call hostile situations where normal paramedics don’t operate,” says WFA’s general manager of operations, Eric Tibbott.
“But in some of the downtime we had, they went down with some of the local district police, in Courtenay Place just to test what it would look like to have paramedics there and then.”
Sergeant Buchanan says the initial results are “really positive”.
It means low-level incidents and injuries can be attended to immediately by both police and paramedics, saving time and resources from being pulled into the CBD.
Preventing trouble is a key focus for the unit.
“Our job is to prevent any harm before it happens, because we obviously don’t like picking up the pieces after it’s already happened. So anything we can do to do that, prevent anything from happening, is essential for us,” says Buchanan.
He says having paramedics on the scene can also help de-escalate situations in a way that a police-only presence can’t.
It also has the added benefit of easing pressure on the overall health service.
Tibbott explains that by “having paramedics on the street who can treat people very quickly, and resolve matters [quickly] we don’t need to send an ambulance down to Courtenay Place”.
“That means we’ve got more ambulances available for emergencies elsewhere, but it also means it reduces the pipeline because if we weren’t there, people may make their way to the ED at Wellington Hospital. Everything we can do as an ambulance service to reduce that demand works for the whole of the system.”
One person was hospitalised in moderate condition on Friday night after a brawl on Courtenay Place, and police say thirteen people were arrested in total, however they say the first night of the initiative was “very positive”.
The trial will run for 12 months, and those running it hope it may lead to similar programmes elsewhere around the country.
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