Constable Daniel McLeod, freshly graduated from police college and posted back to Invercargill, is the eighth member of his family to join the force, following in the footsteps of his father Christopher, late grandfather Norman, two uncles, two great-uncles and a male cousin.
''There wasn't really any other career choice for me. I started studying quantity surveying, switched to business studies and worked as a duty manager in the Dunedin City Hotel for a while. But I always wanted to join the police eventually.''
Const McLeod (26) said he expected to be an officer for many years to come. His father is a 38-year police veteran based in Rotorua and his grandfather, who grew up in Mataura, retired after 37 years, mostly based in Auckland and Rotorua.
Both men were his ''inspiration'', Const McLeod said.
''We had lots of stories told to us kids. Going through town [Rotorua] I would see some pretty dodgy-looking characters come up and shake their hands and say `Gidday Chris or Gidday Norm'.
"They would shake their hands because of the way Dad and Granddad had treated them in their dealings with them. As someone put it, `you treat us like people even though we are not necessarily the nicest of people'.
''That's what I hope to do too. It's about finding a balance between treating people fairly and maintaining the law.
''You have to realise everyone's still human ...''
Const McLeod was working in Dunedin when he saw a job advertised last year for a non-sworn authorised officer to help in the cells and on the reception desk at the Invercargill Police Station.
He applied for the job hoping it would be a stepping stone to police college.
He did his three-month training at the end of last year, graduating on December 11 and starting work on December 22.
Being on the job was ''really good fun'', he said.
''It's been exciting and a huge learning curve, even though I was in the non-sworn officer's position. Working in the station and hearing the stories is quite a bit different to getting out on the street and doing the job.''
