26th March 2020 – Emailed to all Patrol alias emails and District Support Team Leaders

Good afternoon all,

This morning we all wake up doing things different, maintaining isolation and distance, as we all work together to fight the effects of the Covid – 19 virus. New Zealand has moved to Alert Level 4.  Government have confirmed that ONLY essential services are permitted to continue, whilst we have been working with Police to establish our role during this time, Police, leading the operational aspects of the lockdown, have confirmed that CPNZ,  and patrolling is not deemed an essential service at this point in time. At this stage, all Community Patrols must continue to stand down from all Patrolling activities immediately.

Please respect this current decision and support our partners by ceasing all patrolling activity.  If at a local level you are being requested to undertake patrolling, please ensure you reiterate that currently CPNZ and patrolling are not deemed an essential service. These Government imposed measures are to be taken very seriously in order to protect the most vulnerable in our communities and keep our health sector and Police free to do their jobs.

As you can all appreciate things are very fluid and changing by the day, so we are maintaining daily contact with Police at National Headquarters and have advised them that Patrols remain available to them if deemed necessary. Any change to the current decision, will be communicated from Police National Headquarters to CPNZ National Office and any changes to the current situation will be sent to all Patrols.

I want to pass on to you a message sent by a PLO to her local Community Patrol in the last few days which I think reiterates our relationship:

I know that you are all struggling with not patrolling for the next wee while and I understand that some of you are feeling like you are letting us down. Please don’t feel this way, we are so very lucky to work alongside you and any time we have with you is a bonus for our organisation. You are an incredible, selfless group of people and it is so important to keep you all safe. Please keep in touch with me through the next wee while and let me know how you are doing. I’d love to know what you are doing to entertain yourselves. 

I will keep you updated about what’s happening in our world over the next month or so.Thinking of you all

Like many of you I am busting to get out there and  assist, but this is a different threat and we must all lockdown for a number of weeks until our time to respond is upon us. In the meantime, stay calm, keep your brain busy, continue exercising, eat healthy, stay connected with your loved ones and above all, stay safe. More information can be found at https://covid19.govt.nz

Thank you