He wanted to help people and work outdoors – and from kiddie cop to community champ, Senior Sergeant Alasdair Macmillan has undoubtedly achieved both.
It started at high school when the vocational guidance people asked what he wanted to do, says Snr Sgt Macmillan, known as ‘Mac’, who retired this week after 49 years in Police.
“I said ‘I just want to help people and be outdoors’. Being in Otago, the choice was stock and station agent or police officer.”
“I laughed and thought ‘A cop – bugger off!’ but a few months later I was getting on a plane to go to Trentham.”
That led Mac into a career which included frontline, CIB, Dive Squad, pioneering prevention roles and more. He earned a reputation for the care he showed to those who needed it, and even learned a lot about bees.
Mac joined No 20 Sir Denis Blundell Cadet Wing on 28 January 1976, on an 18-month course. But…
“A couple of months into the course they said ‘We’ve got good news and bad news’.
“The good news was that the course had been shortened to 12 months; the bad news was that those who were not 19 when it ended would stay cadets until they turned 19.”
Over the years – applicant and cadet (1976); newly qualified detective (1985); sergeant (1991); CIB course coordinator (1995); Coordinator Youth and Community (2016).
Mac was posted to Wellington and was attested as a constable when he turned 19 in March 1977. Then straight on to night shift.
“My first job was to go to the soup kitchen and arrest a well-known lag – he was my first arrest, for drunk and disorderly. Not many people got an arrest within two hours of being attested.”
He served in general duties at Wellington Central and the inquiry section at Taranaki Street, under Wellington policing legend Greg Gilpin.
In 1983, he became Detective Constable Macmillan, cutting his teeth in the fraud squad under the future Detective Superintendent Rod Drew. He achieved detective designation in 1985.
On promotion to sergeant in 1989 he returned to uniform, re-entering CIB as detective sergeant in 1991.
In 1996, Commissioner Peter Doone received a letter from two victims of a rapist, saying how Mac had looked after them while pursuing their case to conviction.
He was a superb detective, they wrote, but “much more than just that, he became a trusted friend… Alistair possesses qualities that are to be admired and followed by all around him.”
Mac, left, and Dive Squad colleagues shelter from the storm during the response to the grounding of a tanker off Wellington in 1981. (PHOTO CREDIT: The Bulletin)
Parallel to this career path, Mac was dipping more than his toe in other waters: he joined the Wellington-based national Police Dive Squad in 1978 and stayed until 1995.
“It was an on-call role,” he says. “I got to travel the country. And I found out what a dominatrix was.”
Mac and the squad searched Huka Falls for evidence in the notorious case of Peter Plumley-Walker, whose body was dumped there in 1989 after he died during a bondage session.
His first squad job was a tough one – recovering the body of one of his Trentham wingmates, who had died while diving.
Another early job, in 1979, was diving to search for the firearm which killed a teenager outside the Mainstreet Cabaret in Auckland.
“Apparently this pistol was thrown over the Greenhithe Bridge, which was massive, but we found it.
“It was an interesting dive – we could only dive at slack tide and there were barges moving up and down. So we could only dive between tides and these great big barges.”
Mac on the job for the Police Dive Squad.
In 1985, they dived for evidence on the sunken Rainbow Warrior. Mac’s involvement ended when he suffered an injury. “It made the front page – I was raced to hospital, still in my wetsuit. But it was only my finger.” He still has the scar.
After the Soviet cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov sank in the Marlborough Sounds in 1986, Mac was involved in searches for a crew member who was never found. There were many other jobs.
“It was a really interesting part of my career. Diving under Huka Falls is definitely a highlight.”
Mr Community – Mac at PNHQ in 2014 and, inset, the community says thanks in 2019 with a Kiwibank Local hero award.
Back on dry land, Mac became a senior sergeant in 2000.
With the encouragement of Lower Hutt Area Commander Inspector Bruce Dunstan, he applied for and landed the role of Crime Strategy Manager – a new Area position which foreshadowed later prevention-focused roles.
“I put together lots of operations; I had any staff I wanted at my disposal – the Strategic Traffic Unit, CIB – it was a really good four years.”
One job was introducing CCTV to Lower Hutt CBD – with an immediate 23 per cent fall in crime. One partner commended Mac for “one of the most professional, thorough and well researched proposals of its type”.
In an appraisal, Bruce noted: “Alasdair has made the role an art form.”
In April 2004 came the role Mac had been looking for – OC Kāpiti, his home turf. He had an unusual start, however, after the panel – a formidable trio of Pete Cowan, Mike Oxnam and John Spence – noted a lack of Road Policing experience on his CV.
“I got the job but for the first week I was out with the STU, doing ticketing, checking heavy vehicles, pulling over cars.
“In that week I gave out 16 tickets and got to understand how the system works. After 49 years in policing my total is 19.”
There was plenty going on in Kapiti, as well as BAU. Mac’s years in the role included three homicides, two major floods and two fatal air crashes.
All the while he was truly the face of Police in Kāpiti, commented then-District Commander Superintendent John Price.
“My time at Kāpiti was special,” says Mac. “I loved it. I thought I was there for life.”
A restructure put paid to that. In November 2013, he took on a project in the Prevention group at PNHQ under Superintendent Bruce Bird, eventually taking his final role of Coordinator Youth and Community.
His many responsibilities included working with NGOs such as Neighbourhood Support New Zealand and Community Patrols and a wide variety of other community stakeholders.
“I had Rural, which I absolutely loved.” He started up a rural crime prevention group and made headlines as far away as the US after tackling a spike in beehive thefts: “I became a semi-expert in apiculture.”
The youth part of the portfolio included Police’s role in the Limited Service Volunteer (LSV) programme for young people at risk of going astray.
“Even talking about it now, the change in the young people and how great it was just gives me a real buzz.”
The community thanked Mac with a Kiwibank Local Hero award in 2019. “I’m humbled to able to help those who need it,” he said at the time.
Part of Mac’s legacy can be found in the Police Museum collection – the paint-spattered tunic he was wearing when ‘all hell broke loose’ outside the final test of the 1981 Springbok tour.
After policing related incidents in Wellington, Mac and colleagues were deployed to Auckland for the third test on 12 September. Mac says he had a feeling, en route, that it would get nasty. It did.
Protesters repeatedly charged police lines and bombarded them with flour bombs and more. Behind the lines waited Blue Squad, the Wellington contingent of the specialist public order teams.
“The call went up ‘Blue Team coming through’. We were meant to take one step back and one to the left to let them through. I remember going one step to the left and nek minnit I was about 200 metres down the road.
“All I could see were riot helmets and the blue tags they wore on their lapels. I was right in the middle of Blue Squad. That’s where I picked up most of the battle scars.
“I moved back and an inspector said ‘Constable, come here, you’re bleeding’ – you can see on the photo (above) there’s something on my neck – ‘go and get the medic’.
“I said ‘It’s OK sir, it’s only timber dye’. He shoved me back and said ‘Carry on!’”
Mac’s most recent battle has been against cancer. He entered hospital in March 2024 and underwent a transplant of stem cells donated by his son Hamish.
He was allowed home in July and is awaiting the all-clear after further treatment.
It has been a long and difficult journey, he says, but he has been buoyed by the support he has received from colleagues and others.
That support was clear at Mac’s farewell at PNHQ on 28 January, 49 years to the day since that flight. Commissioner Richard Chambers presented his 49-year Long Service and Good Conduct award and Certificate of Service, and recalled the ‘privilege’ of working with Mac in Lower Hutt.
“That’s where I got to know you first, got to understand the leader you are and always have been, and in particular the care you gave the people we were working with,” the Commissioner said.
On behalf of his community colleagues, DCE Pieri Munro presented a framed collection of his rank insignia and badges. From Neighbourhood Support NZ came honorary life membership and a ‘retirement survival kit’ of assorted goodies.
Mac reminisced about his career and spoke of his health challenges, and his intent to now do support work for the Cancer Society.
“I’ll never be able to repay each and every one for their support but without it I wouldn’t be here today,” he said.
“Some people have said ‘Have you ever thought about giving it up, this battle?’ but no, I’ve got too much to live for – and it’s the people here.”
Mac remembers many highlights – not least a cordial chat with Nelson Mandela at Government House – but mainly it’s the people and the friendships made.
“The colleagues and people I’ve met will be lifelong friends.”
