The first Kiwi Indian woman police officer, Mandeep
Kaur Sidhu, has been promoted to senior sergeant in the New Zealand Police and was presented with her badge by police commissioner Andrew Coster at a ceremony in Wellington recently, according to her post on social media.
She had joined New Zealand Police in 2004 and in her previous role was as an
ethnic people’s community relations officer at Henderson Police Station in Waitemata. In her new role, she will move to the police headquarters in Wellington. Kaur moved to New Zealand from
Malwa district in
Punjab as an immigrant at 26, and it was her childhood dream to become a police officer. According to her profile on the New Zealand Police website, she has worked as a frontline officer in road policing, family violence, investigation support, neighbourhood policing and community policing.
In her role as community relations officer, she has had to attend community meetings, host media programmes, visit family violence victims and offer ethnic and cultural advice. In her social media post, Kaur said that her achievement is not a feat of an individual but a milestone for the women of the South East Asian community in New Zealand who have worked hard and she felt she represents them in the NZ Police.
Her NZ Police department profile highlights her journey to become a police officer which came with many personal and cultural barriers, which she faced while raising her two children on her own. Her Sikh religion is a big part of her life and she regularly worships at the Gurudwara. An interesting fact is that she has formed a New Zealand Police Bhangra dancing group which had performed in their police uniforms at a
Diwali event.