The partnership between the New Zealand Police and New Holland New Zealand has been an outstanding success and shows no signs of slowing down.
The New Holland police tractor became a reality in 2015 after initial discussions between New Holland Operations Manager Kyle Baxter (now C B Norwood Brand Manager) and Police Inspector Paul Carpenter. The pair thought the police tractor would be a good way to generate public interest and enable the police an opportunity to engage in important conversation with rural communities.
Soon after the police tractor launched it became a sought after display at local schools and community events, attracting the attention of the public and becoming a conversation starter for police and our rural communities. Senior Sergeant Alasdair Macmillan says that “The New Holland tractor has exceeded our expectations, allowing us to play a larger part in local field days and giving us a new opportunity to engage with the public.
Prior to bringing the tractor to field days, our site struggled to attract an audience. Now the public are intrigued and stop to ask us what the tractor is used for, which is exactly what we want. The tractor gets the public’s attention so we can start a conversation.
Often these conversations end up resulting in information on criminal activity being disclosed, which could be anything from burglaries to serious family violence issues. We receive a lot of useful insight into issues each community may be having. Anything that helps us keep our communities safe is absolutely a positive thing.”
New Holland Operations Manager Brett Stiven couldn’t be happier with how the initiative is going and is ecstatic to announce that the initiative will be running for a third consecutive year. “The initial 12 month contract, signed in 2015 was renewed for a second year and I am pleased to announce New Holland has just signed a third year agreement to support this fantastic initiative.
New Holland is a division of C B Norwood Distributors Limited, one of the company’s core values is supporting local communities and this aligned with the New Holland police tractor initiative so it was an easy decision to continue supporting the police with this fantastic initiative.
At New Holland, we feel we have an obligation to give back to the communities that support us and we are proud to be associated with the fantastic work the police do to protect our communities.”
The New Holland police tractor has begun 2017 traveling the South Island and has attended a whopping eight events since January, visiting numerous towns from Queenstown to Oamaru. Keep an eye out for the New Holland police tractor coming to an event near you!
New Holland is imported in New Zealand by C B Norwood Distributors Ltd.