Minister of Police Hon Poto Williams and Deputy Commissioner Jevon McSkimming with new Police dog teams (left to right)
Senior Constable Sam Bennett and Nizmo, Const Michael Lamb and Griffen, Const Josh Yeoman and Lenix, Const Mat Morris
and Dane, and Senior Const John Fraser and Vin
Trained, qualified and ready to go – five new Police dog teams will be working across Tāmaki Makaurau, Wellington and
Canterbury from next week after graduating from the New Zealand Police Dog Training Centre, Trentham, yesterday.
It was paws and feet forward as the teams paraded before the Minister of Police, the Honourable Poto Williams, Deputy
Commissioner Jevon McSkimming (Strategy and Service), Police colleagues, proud families and friends.
Three of the officers are first time handlers, with graduation marking the operational start of their careers within Dog
Section. This follows several years of working on other frontline policing duties, fostering pups and successfully
completing months of training in their home districts and on dog training centre courses.
They join 108 other operational Police patrol and detector teams, with a further 13 dog teams in active training. Police
also has 30 dogs used for breeding and in the last 12 months have bred 105 German Shepherds and Labrador pups.
It’s a case of like father, like son as Constable Michael Lamb joins his father Senior Constable Bruce Lamb on
Christchurch’s dog section. “Being a dog handler is something I’ve always wanted to do,” says Constable Lamb who has
grown up with Police dogs all his life.
There’s been no shortcuts to training however and he’s fostered patrol dog Usain, detector dog Luther and now his own
patrol dog – two-year-old Griffen.
Also joining the Canterbury team is new handler Constable Josh Yeoman with Lenix, aged 20 months. “Training has been
great and I’m really looking forward to starting my first shift,” he says.
Constable Mat Morris joined Police in 2014 and worked for five years in Whangarei before shifting to Auckland in 2019 to
take up a trainee dog handler position. Joining dog section has been his goal, and he’ll be working with 2-year-old
German Shepherd Dane on the Tāmaki Makaurau team.
Senior Constable John Fraser, Tāmaki Makarau, joined police in 1981 and has been a dog handler for most of that time.
He’s worked five patrol dogs before taking over a detector dog last year from a retiring colleague.
Sadly Kadee died unexpectedly earlier this year and Senior Constable Fraser has now qualified with Vin, a 15 months old
Labrador detector dog.
Wellington’s Senior Constable Sam Bennett also has a new patrol German Shepherd partner. Nismo, affectionately known as
‘Nizzy’, is his third operational dog since joining dog section in 2014. He’s previously successfully worked with Arlo
for five years, and Dakota for 12 months until her retirement early this year.
Police Minister Williams congratulated the five teams for their hard work and achievements, saying they are part of a
police service “making a meaningful impact in our communities every single day.”