Palmerston North police officer encourages immigrants to follow their dreams

Monday, 22 March 2021

A new police sergeant who realised his dream of becoming an officer is encouraging other immigrants to realise their passions too.

Qian “Q” Yang​, 41, is a community constable who will become a sergeant and ethnic liaison officer next month. He pursued his dream of becoming a police officer after falling in love with New Zealand.

Originally from Qingdao​ in mainland China, he travelled to Wellington in 2000 to study English language and gain a degree in business at Massey University to become an international trader in China.

But as he overcame his struggles with English, learning the hard, but funny way through conversations with his host family and shop assistants, he realised Aotearoa had become his home.

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Yang became a citizen, letting go of his Chinese citizenship, to help and protect his new home in Palmerston North.

“Emotionally, that would be difficult at times, but I made up my mind. I loved New Zealand.”

Based at Highbury Police Station, Yang will take on the role of Central District ethnic liaison officer, connecting with more than 130 ethnic groups that span across the city.

“I’ve gone through what they're going through right now, and I know how to approach them,” he said.

“I understand how painful it can be at times when they are trying to express something to other people or their feelings, but they can't find the right word.

“I help them get to know New Zealand police, so they feel safe and be safe.”

Many immigrants and refugees had little understanding of the support Kiwi police could offer, he said.

He realised this when a foreign student reported her wallet stolen and tried to pay him for putting through the report.

“I realised they don’t know we don't charge people, it’s free. A lot of questions they ask, you think it's common sense, but they just didn’t know.”

Yang held seminars with community groups and universities to educate students and help them feel at ease with authorities.

Looking back on the past 21 years it had been a hard road, but was all worth it, he said.

There were times he had been discriminated against, but those incidents were in the minority.

“It was eye-opening back then. Same with when Covid happened. People would call me the virus spreader, but that’s very rare.”

Overall the experience had been positive, he said.

“People treat me like normal. I’m doing the same as other police officers, we help people, we investigate, everyone is equal.

“We're open to everyone, and we would love people of different ethnic groups to join us, to understand their culture and reach their communities to do our job and help.

“I want to put it to a standard that it's easier for the police to reach communities and work with our partner agencies, but we need help from our communities to come to us and connect with us.”

He would move into his new role over Easter, and he hoped this would enable him to make an even greater impact on the region's diverse population.