Inspector Matt Arnold-Kelly had no intention of applying for the job as Nelson’s top cop when he took on the role as Nelson Bays Police Acting Area Commander after Steve Greally left earlier this year.
But Matt enjoyed working with the area commander’s “high quality team” so much he soon changed his mind and applied for – and got – the job. Matt started his first official day in the role on Monday and is looking forward to the challenges ahead.
“I had no intention of applying for the role because I loved the job I was already doing. I’m not really an ambitious career person either, but once I started in the job I realised that I enjoyed the challenges that keep coming at you from different directions.”
Matt also had reservations about the demands of the job impacting on his other job as a solo father of a seven-year-old daughter. “I went on a school trip with my daughter to the museum and she said to me that evening, ‘Dad you spent all you time on the phone’. Initially I blamed that on the job, but then I thought I have three very good senior sergeants and I could have turned my phone off. So it wasn’t about the role, it was how I managed it.”
Interestingly, Matt, who was born and raised in Nelson where he attended Nayland College, started his policing career in the UK after “a six-month OE turned into six years”. He spent two years as a constable in Manchester before returning to New Zealand in 1996.
Matt was posted to Auckland, Oamaru, West Coast and then Wellington, before returning to Nelson where he spent time as district manager of deployment and then, prevention, before stepping up to the top job. He says he initially joined the police because “I like helping people and lots of variety in my work”.
Although Matt says he is “still getting a feel for the role” he has some ideas he would like implement. He has already initiated a “health check of how we are doing things across the business”.
“We are doing more than consulting, we are getting the ideas from our staff rather than imposing our ideas on them. We are putting it onto the staff and they are coming up with the ideas. We’ll try them and see if they work – it just makes sense to me.”
