In 1992, a 31-year-old Angela Grace was issued a uniform, pair of handcuffs and a wooden baton as she started her career in the New Zealand Police Force.

She had 'no idea” what events unfold during the next 24 years of her career.

Bay of Plenty district prosecutions manager Senior Sergeant Angela Grace. Photo: Daniel Hines.

She's been part of nearly every police department – including the harrowing child abuse sexual abuse teams – she's worked on a maximum security prison break and the high profile Kirsty Bentley case.

Now – being one of the Bay's longest serving women police officers – and to celebrate 75 Years of Women in Policing in New Zealand – Angela's sharing her story with The Weekend Sun.

Fresh out of Police College – and with four children aged four, six, seven and nine at home – Angela started as a constable on Auckland's North Shore.

'I basically joined because I wanted to help those people who couldn't help themselves – that was my main drive. To support those vulnerable people in our society; I thought I could give them a hand up.”

But her new day job was in stark contrast to her former stay-at-home role. 'Theft, domestic violence, robbery, traffic infringements, serious assault, house on fire – anything or everything on the front line.

'The hardest thing for me was going to families who didn't care much for their children. I said to my husband: ‘Oh my God I could start an orphanage' – I wanted to pick up a lot of these children and bring them home with me.”

'You see a side of society you wouldn't normally come across – it's bit of a shock to the system at first.”

Prison break

She then worked in Team Policing Unit with duties such as 'managing cannabis in our area”. 'But our main drive was to manage the big parties attended by 300-plus youths fuelled by alcohol on the shore in the 1990s.”

She worked with the sexual abuse team, then joined the CIB and was the first woman to be trained as a detective on the North Shore, which took 2.5 years and required working in various sectors.

'There is quite a few hoops to jump for this; you're involved with homicide enquiries, rape enquiries. I dealt with a prison break at Auckland's Paremoremo Prison. '

'That was back in 1998; we had four people escape from the maximum security prison.

'I was working with my boss that night and we'd just said it was time to knock off and head back to the station when we got a call saying: ‘We've just discovered a prisoner missing.”

'They'd managed to escape and had a friend on the outside helping them.” Angela and her boss found clues in the prisoners' cells which led them to the rental company and the van they had hired.

'An intense manhunt followed and 10 days later they were discovered holed up in a very flash holiday home that was empty in the Coromandel.”

Kirsty Bentley

After 2000 she moved to Ashburton and worked on the Kirsty Bentley case for two years.

The Ashburton teenager went to walk her dog along the riverbank near her house on New Year's Eve in 1998. She never came home. Two weeks later, her body was found nearly 60km away. To this day, Police have been unable to catch her killer – making it one of NZ's highest profile murder mysteries.

'I joined the investigation a year later; managing the large file, continued with enquiries and summarised the multiple exhibits and complicated scene examination with my main role as family liaison,” says Angela.

'It is disappointing for everyone involved that no one has been charged with her murder.”

Does this nag at her? 'Absolutely, because Kirsty was only 15 and Ashburton would have felt that ripple through the whole community.”

'It's frustrating and it's something we won't give up on. We will wait for new information to come in. Police never give up, because we want peace of mind for the family.”

Making a difference

Angela moved to Christchurch in 2002 and was a detective until 2004. 'Then I moved to working with youth services, delivering educational programmes for children of all ages, their teachers and also their parents and caregivers.

'And that's beauty of being part of the Police – it's like a career within a career.”

Plus, she had another year back with child protection as a detective. Angela says while most don't like working in this sector, she found it satisfying to get results for victims.

'The drive is to make a difference for that child; and to protect other people from being harmed in future.”

'Some of the cases you read, you almost think it is fiction because you can't imagine it happening in real life. But more, for me, I'm thinking ‘Gee, I'm only reading this; there's someone out there who had to live through this'.”

In 2006 Angela was promoted to sergeant, then senior sergeant in 2010, working in professional standards, and was a senior on the frontline.

In 2013 she helped set up the District Command Centre in Canterbury; in 2015 she moved to the Bay to take up her current role as District Prosecutions Manager for Bay of Plenty North, and has recently been joined by her husband.

'I manage a dedicated team of prosecution staff in Tauranga and Whakatane to ensure we provide the best service for our district and communities to obtain good resolutions for all parties through the Court process.”

So what's changed in 24 years in the thin blue line? 'There's a lot more technology. When I started there was no such thing as email. Radios weren't digital so all your communication could be heard by others.”

And equipment? 'When I joined we just had handcuffs and a wooden baton. Now you've got the SRBA vest, pepper spray, tasers, iPhones and tablets – so we're better-equipped and a lot more safety-conscious today.”

And back in 1992 there was only one female in a section of seven. 'Then this grew to two, which was unheard of – and we'd work a night shift together, again quite unusual at that time. We were always determined to stop every suspicious vehicle and catch a burglar – we were very focused as a team.”

And today, Angela says there's a lot more females in higher positions than there ever has been. 'For females starting they can think: ‘Great I can achieve that'.”

And what do women bring to the force? 'Empathy. Looking at someone from another point of view. A lot of offenders don't see us as a challenge – we're not a risk to them – so they don't man up and want to fight us.

On the child abuse team and sexual abuse team 'you would sit and talk to these offenders and gain their trust which often led to full and frank confessions, saving child victims from attending Court to give evidence”.

'Sometimes offenders were happy to talk to you and tell how they broke into a house or made cannabis oil. With a different approach you can engage with them, and the whole thing about policing is communication – it's the biggest tool we have.”

Angela says beginning policing she had no idea 'of where I'd end up or how it would be”.

'But it's more of a lifestyle than a career because it's quite involving. You need a family you can go home to and talk to when you've had a bad day.”

And she loves the variety of work. 'I think the main thing that's kept me in the job is you never know what was going to happen on any given day.”

'And it's really interesting managing files from the first attendance at the scene, then working with the victim, witnesses and offenders to get it all the way through to court for a successful outcome for everyone.”

Relay in the Bay

On June 24, a relay with two halves of a special baton, to celebrate 75 Years of women in Policing, started from Cape Reinga and from the Bluff, and is visiting each station to join together in Wellington on August 1.

The baton arrives in the BOP on July 13 at Katikati, then via Greerton on July 16 it will go via waka from Sulphur Point to Pilot Bay and will be carried around Mauao, cycled to Papamoa, run from Tauranga Memorial Park to Tauranga station and lastly through Te Puke on July 17.

To find out more about the relay and where the public can support the event, see www.police.govt.nz