{"id":286699,"date":"2026-02-16T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286699\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T12:00:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T12:00:06","slug":"superintendent-will-loughrin-takes-charge-of-bay-of-plenty-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/286699\/","title":{"rendered":"Superintendent Will Loughrin takes charge of Bay of Plenty police"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ng\u0101ti Whakaue descendant explained it was a \u201chuge privilege\u201d to come back to a place where he was from, through his Tapsell links at Maket\u016b.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018I didn\u2019t know, but it just feels right being here\u2019 … It\u2019s a real honour to come back to a place I whakapapa back to.\u201d<\/p>\n

He warmed the crowd when he jokingly addressed his age.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I guess the elephant in the room, yes, I\u2019m young, this isn\u2019t a Botox regime … but I\u2019ve always based my career on caring for the people, listening, having an open heart and mind. Getting things wrong but always learning from them and never fearing failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loughrin joined the police aged 19.<\/p>\n

\"BayBay of Plenty’s new police district commander, Superintendent Will Loughrin, is led on to Te Papaiouru Maraea at \u014chinemutu. Photo \/ Kelly Makiha<\/p>\n

He began his career in Counties Manukau before moving to Waikato in 2011.<\/p>\n

An experienced investigator, he has worked across several investigation workgroups and held senior leadership roles, including area commander for Waikato West. <\/p>\n

He was Waikato\u2019s acting district commander before his Bay of Plenty appointment. <\/p>\n

He also recently acted as director of integrity and conduct at Police National Headquarters.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a career he was almost destined to have.<\/p>\n

As the son of a New Zealand police officer, who went on to be a chief detective inspector in the Hong Kong Police, policing was always Loughrin\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

\"SuperintendentSuperintendent Will Loughrin is officially handed over by his Waikato police colleagues to the Bay of Plenty at Te Papaiouru Maraea at \u014chinemutu. Photo \/ Kelly Makiha<\/p>\n

The CIB has been a big part of his career withstints in Auckland, Waikato and Eastern districts.<\/p>\n

Loughrin described the role changes among police hierarchy as \u201cone of the biggest leadership changes in police in over 100 years\u201d.<\/p>\n

Former deputy police commissioner Wallace Haumaha, who recently retired after 40 years, was among the Te Arawa kaum\u0101tua who welcomed Loughrin.<\/p>\n

Hamauha said Loughrin knew how tough the job would be, but said he had the people behind him.<\/p>\n

Good friend and Tauranga Mayor Mahe Drysdale<\/a> attended the p\u014dhiri, saying he knew Loughrin personally as their children were friends and had grown up together in Cambridge.<\/p>\n

He said he was thrilled to have Loughrin leading police in the Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n

\"SuperintendentSuperintendent Will Loughrin addresses the “elephant in the room” – his “young” age. Photo \/ Kelly Makiha<\/p>\n

Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers<\/a>, who attended from Wellington, told Loughrin he was not alone. She also asked those in the room to ensure that was the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are hard roles, and so remember these people here are for you, they are with you, they are alongside you … when leaders put themselves in these positions, do not let them stand alone, stand with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly Makiha<\/a> is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ng\u0101ti Whakaue descendant explained it was a \u201chuge privilege\u201d to come back to a place where he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1561,32294,159603,111,43,139,69,1118,1562,675,159602,1120,1533],"class_list":["post-286699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-bay","tag-charge","tag-loughrin","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-plenty","tag-police","tag-superintendent","tag-takes","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}