{"id":384464,"date":"2026-04-17T16:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384464\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T16:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:33:17","slug":"police-defy-districts-top-cop-by-posting-pay-protest-stickers-in-station-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/384464\/","title":{"rendered":"Police defy district\u2019s top cop by posting pay protest stickers in station"},"content":{"rendered":"

The campaign slogan was \u201cRepay the Risk\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Friday, RNZ was supplied a photo of a sticker with the slogan that had been put on a window in the Dunedin Central Police Station.<\/p>\n

An RNZ employee said there were at least four of the stickers visible inside the public area of the station.<\/p>\n

It comes a day after Southern District Commander Jason Guthrie emailed staff about a memo that had gone to staff about the bargaining campaign.<\/p>\n

He said it was clear that while staff could \u201cadvocate and engage with campaigning\u201d, they could not \u201calter or diminish our professional standards throughout this period\u201d.<\/p>\n

This meant that any non-branded police material such as stickers and ribbons were not permitted on uniforms, or any police assets such as equipment, vehicles or buildings.<\/p>\n

Guthrie said staff could not engage in any sort of picketing during work time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am aware that campaign stickers have been placed in multiple locations in at least one station in Southern and those stickers will be removed forthwith.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy expectation is that any other stickers on NZP assets (including but not limited to buildings, walls, doors, laptops, vehicles, uniforms) are also removed forthwith and do not reappear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guthrie said he was sending the email not to \u201climit or stop anyone supporting or advocating around the pay round\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut to make sure that activity doesn\u2019t overlap with our commitment to professionalism<\/a> or our operational delivery to communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, a memo was sent to staff on behalf of Assistant Commissioner Deployment Jeanette Park.<\/p>\n

The memo, seen by RNZ, said police had always \u201cpositively engaged\u201d with the service organisations and had a \u201clong history\u201d of supporting staff in being able to advocate their position.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis does not change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park said before bargaining it was \u201cimportant to remind you that our values continue to be front and centre of how we operate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of those values is professionalism: look the part, be the part which requires us all to maintain standards and present a professional image to ensure our communities have trust and confidence in us.<\/p>\n

\u201cStickers, decals, ribbons, clasps, lanyards or other non-branded police material are not permitted on uniforms, or any police assets such as police vehicles, equipment, buildings, office spaces and noticeboards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park said it was \u201cessential for us to maintain our professionalism to ensure New Zealanders have trust and confidence in us\u201d.<\/p>\n

Following the memo, the association wrote to staff.<\/p>\n

The email, seen by RNZ, said the association \u201crejects police\u2019s view that participation in the \u2018Repay the Risk\u2019 campaign is unprofessional\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur view is that it is highly professional to care about your terms and conditions and take collegial action to seek improvements, thereby aiding the viability of your occupation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are extremely concerned that this morning\u2019s P\u0101nui was an attempt to intimidate members and to undermine our campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

The association said it was \u201cvital\u201d members\u2019 right to participate in the union was protected.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour employer should respect that and refrain from imposing any restrictions inconsistent with other external material, such as claiming that because our campaign materials \u2013 wristbands and stickers etc \u2013 are non-Police branded they are not permitted within your workplace or while in uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any members who experienced \u201cretaliation\u201d were asked to contact the union.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore \u2018Repay the Risk\u2019 was underway Commissioner [Richard] Chambers was advised about the material that was to be distributed. No concerns were raised.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, association president Steve Watt has written to the commissioner outlining our concerns. We have also indicated our willingness to take things further if we must.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, police told RNZ they had no further comment.<\/p>\n

-RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The campaign slogan was \u201cRepay the Risk\u201d. On Friday, RNZ was supplied a photo of a sticker with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3595,22970,157090,39881,78,111,43,139,69,2744,675,45788,25394,15768,13655,86499,3010],"class_list":{"0":"post-384464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-by","9":"tag-cop","10":"tag-defy","11":"tag-districts","12":"tag-in","13":"tag-new-zealand","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-pay","18":"tag-police","19":"tag-posting","20":"tag-protest","21":"tag-sherwood","22":"tag-station","23":"tag-stickers","24":"tag-top"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384464","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=384464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}