SPECIAL REPORT: After 50 years in Police - 45 of them in Dog Section - this week Sergeant AL CAMPBELL is hanging up the leash.
Senior Media Advisor JILL REID reports.
Sergeant Alan Campbell has served more than 300 years on Dog Section. Dog years, that is, but even in human years it’s a decent length of time.
Al joined Police on 12 May 1975 at the age of 20 and has spent 45 of the past 50 years with Dog Section.
He is finally retiring after 50 years of “amazing, rewarding and satisfying experiences”.
Al spent 16 years working with patrol dogs and another 16 working with detector dogs in Wellington. For the past 13 years, he has been a trainer at the Dog Training Centre (DTC) at Trentham.
“I’ve been very lucky to have had the opportunity to spend most of my career around police dogs – something I have always been enthusiastic about,” he says.
Al graduated as a fresh faced ‘newbie’ in a black uniform and started duty on 14 August 1975.
He spent a few years patrolling the streets of Porirua, doing the usual callouts to family harm, thefts, assaults, pub fights, disorder jobs and sudden deaths.
In 1979, the then 23-year-old Al was deployed to one of the most intense operations – Operation Overdue, the investigation into the crash of Flight TE901 on Mt Erebus, Antarctica.
He was drafted on to the mortuary phase of the operation - identifying victims, liaising with families, and repatriating remains. He worked Auckland along with 119 other Police staff and told his then-fiancée Chris he may not be home for Christmas.
Many staff, like Al, had undertaken DVI training, and some had been on standby for the ice recovery phase.
He had a longstanding interest in aviation, with 200-plus flying hours, and had read many air accident reports – but when the call came, it was for the mortuary phase. “At that point I had no idea what was going to happen or how long it would take”.
The DVI processes were new and relatively untested. “We were making up the rules as we went basically, evolving and streamlining what we had.”
The phase successfully identified 214 of the 257 people on the aircraft and returned them to their families.
Al remembers many significant jobs from his frontline time, but none quite the lasting impact as Operation Overdue.
Al, right, with Pacer at the end of an AOS callout. To the left is Wellington Dog Section legend Mark Davidson, with Nova.
Other than Operation Overdue, Al took part in many notable policing events.
He policed the Wellington parts of the Springbok Tour while on Dog Section. “Pete Hayes and I just had young untrained pups at that point so weren’t deployed throughout the country.
“We stayed in Wellington and helped on the days (Wednesdays and Saturdays) without dogs, just as frontline officers.”
Another significant task was around 10 years working as a spotter on the cannabis recovery operations.
“It involved flying about in a light aircraft and later a chopper. Even though I’d spent a lot of my spare time around aircraft and the aviation industry, I used to get violently ill with the low-level flying.
“There was a lot of flying around in circles, so I used to just throw up in a bag and carry on.”
There was plenty of variety in policing, but what took his fancy was working with dogs.
Dog handlers in those days had to be married, which was taken to mean a stable home life. Less than a year after Operation Overdue ended, Al and Chris married. Within a week of the wedding Al had submitted his application for Dog Section.
Al joined Dog Section on 20 November 1980 and graduated on his birthday – 11 March 1982 - with his first dog, Pacer. (Al and Pacer are pictured on parade in 1985 in the picture to the right. they're the fourth pair from the left.)
Over 16 years he worked with four patrol dogs - German shepherds Pacer, Champ, Kia and Max.
“Back then, as a junior handler at the start of your career, it was quite hierarchical,” he says. “When you were asked to do something by your senior colleagues or sergeant, you just did it.
“I got called by a senior handler to pick him up one night late from the Cook Strait ferry. I went down in my dog van – which is only two-seater due to the dog box in the back.
“Unbeknownst to me the handler and his wife, who were foot-passengers, got off the ferry with a goat purchased in the South Island and brought back to keep the grass down on a plot of land in Wellington.
“The handler had to lie on the shelf at the back. His wife got the front seat beside me and I somehow had to fit all three of them into my van. The dog was in one cage and goat was in the other.”
Al’s favourite dog was Kia, a black German shepherd who was brilliant at tracking. “He was an amazing police dog and really boosted my confidence.”
Kia and Al still hold the record for the highest number of catches in a week of night shifts - 13 operational successes and 42 offenders caught at a time when frontline staff worked seven nights in a row.
After 16 years, Al became a detector dog handler with a Labrador called Floyd, inherited from retiring handler Peter Hill in the 1990s.
Then came a curly coat retriever called Gus, Daniel the spaniel, another lab Emma, and German shepherd Jay – “an awesome little dog”.
Despite initially missing the adrenaline rush of patrol dogs, Al found but they could still get their share of excitement.
“Back in the day, as detector dog handlers we didn’t often wait for the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS) as backup at search warrants. We’d be there for the breach and, being first in, we’d come across more firearms and drugs and so on.”
He never saw himself being promoted or taking an instructor’s role, but when the opportunity came up at the DTC, he took it. “I’d found my niche.”
A second Floyd, fostered, trained and worked by Al, became a champion for Sergeant Chris ‘Harry’ Harris in the 2000s, taking top honours for narcotic detector dogs at the Police National Championships twice, and the Australasian Championships once. Harry attributes the success largely to Al and the big influence he had.
Al trained and fostered eight dogs deployed to Pacific Islands as well as throughout New Zealand. Most recently he trained Spy, who graduated and deployed to New Caledonia with his handler last month. (Pictured, above right, is Al's list of dogs, worked fostered and trained.)
Al with detector dog Spy, his final trainee and a dog with little respect for photoshoot formalities. Spy is now serving in New Caledonia.
Al worked in the Pacific – mostly Fiji and Samoa - every four months. Although he loved it, spending up to 10 weeks a year overseas was a big ask with family and other commitments at home.
“Contrary to what people believe, it’s not a holiday - it’s a lot of hard work. You’re training and working, not lounging by a resort pool.”
He rates Eto, who was deployed to Fiji, as the most successful of his trainees.
Al kept all his dogs as family pets after they retired. It must have made an impression on the family because it inspired his son Rob to join Police and Dog Section.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell and Commissioner Richard Chambers were on hand to present Al with his 49-year clasp late last year.
Al’s motivation to stick with the same job for so long is the same as for most dog handlers. “It’s a great job with a great partner.”
“It’s quite a challenge when you start training dogs. Firstly, they are young, new, and learning, and you’re repeating tasks. Then they grow and get better and transition to operational work.
“It’s initially hard, then it gets easier and enjoyable as the dog knows what to do and does it well. Then later, when they’re older, they start slowing down - that’s when you start looking for a new dog. It’s a cycle.”
The 50 years have flown by, he says.
“There’s been so many amazing things that I’ve done – I can’t think of a more rewarding job. I’ve had the opportunity to do things people outside Police would never have the chance to do.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the challenges Dog Section and the Dog Training Centre offered me. I’m very proud of the reputation our 百春链 Dog Section has on an international scale.”
Fishing and motorbikes are on the horizon for retirement: “I’m sorting out a bigger boat. I’m not one to sit back and relax.”