Sandra Joy Manderson is a retired police officer and police commander from New Zealand. She was the first woman in the

New Zealand Police The New Zealand Police ( mi, Ngā Pirihimana o Aotearoa) is the national police service and principal law enforcement agency of New Zealand, responsible for preventing crime, enhancing public safety, bringing offenders to justice, and maintai ...

to achieve the rank of Superintendent, the first woman District Commander and the first woman to serve as a New Zealand Police International Liaison Officer.

Life

Manderson grew up in Christchurch and attended

Hagley College Hagley College (previously Hagley Community College and Hagley High School), is a state secondary school in inner-city Christchurch, New Zealand. Prior to 1966 the school was Christchurch West High School, which was founded in 1858. Descriptio ...

and the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury ( mi, Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was ...

, graduating with a bachelor of science. She taught physical education for a year then applied to the police force. She qualified with 70 Recruit Wing on 15 January 1978 and began policing in Canterbury. She progressed through uniformed and CIB roles and in 1993 was appointed the first director of the Crime Prevention Unit at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in Wellington. She then held positions in Wellington District as a shift commander, and at Police National Headquarters. In 1999 she was promoted to superintendent in the role of National Manager Organisational Performance. In 2002 Manderson returned to Canterbury to serve as District Commander for six years. In 2004 she travelled to

Phuket Phuket (; th, ภูเก็ต, , ms, Bukit or ''Tongkah''; Hokkien:普吉; ) is one of the southern provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. It consists of the island of Phuket, the country's largest island, and another 32 smaller islands of ...

, Thailand, to lead a disaster victim identification team in the wake of the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

. In 2008 Manderson was transferred to Washington D.C., where she spent four years as International Liaison Officer to the Americas covering the United States, Canada and South and Central America. Following the February 2011 Canterbury earthquakes Manderson returned to Christchurch to assist with police work in the aftermath of the disaster, then returned to Washington to complete her posting. On her return to New Zealand Manderson ran policing for a number of major events such as the 2012 visit of the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, the

2015 ICC Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by Aust ...

, the 2015

FIFA Under-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 wh ...

and the World Masters Games, Lions tour and

Rugby League World Cup The Rugby League World Cup is an international rugby league tournament contested by the top national men's representative teams. The tournament is administered by the International Rugby League and was first held in France in 1954, which was ...

in 2017. Manderson retired from the police force in January 2018 after a 40-year career.

Recognition

In the 1993 Queen's Birthday Honours, Manderson was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for public services. In 2015 she received an honorary Doctor of Laws from the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manderson, Sandra Living people New Zealand police officers University of Canterbury alumni Recipients of the Queen's Service Medal Year of birth missing (living people) People from Christchurch