Real Life

Mum on the frontline

Gunning for excitement, this Kiwi woman joined the Armed Offenders Squad.

While most mums were dropping their kids off at school, Liz Williams was donning protective clothing and arming herself with semiautomatic firearms. You would never believe petite Liz, who stands just over 1.5m tall and weighs 55kg, was once a member of the Armed Offenders Squad (AOS).

Liz (40) was born with a taste for fighting crime and joined the police force 17 years ago, however it was more than 10 years before the determined officer talked her superiors into letting her try out for the AOS. Liz says being a wife and mother initially counted against her in her quest to be in the AOS. Plus, her husband, Mike (39), was already in the squad.

She met Mike after two years in the police force and they soon fell in love and got married. They now have a nine-year-old son. But when Mike was asked to join the AOS after Liz’s first application was turned down, she admits she felt a pang of envy. “To be fair to him he is an extremely capable guy who you could clearly see would make a good team leader.”

When Liz finally got her break in the AOS in Palmerston North, her family wasn’t surprised, as she’s always craved excitement. But she did face a particularly gruelling pre-selection training. “It was the most character-building time of my life. I learned so much about myself. One of the courses involved a physical training session of carrying a telegraph pole. My lack of height was a real disadvantage. We had to do all sorts of things with it that are too horrible to think about even now.”

Even now there are only a handful of women in the AOS, but growing up, Liz says she was not a typical girl. “My family probably called me a tomboy and I didn’t do typecast female things. But my parents encouraged us to do anything we wanted.”

And what she wanted was to join the AOS. “I wanted to do it for the teamwork, the excitement and the challenge and to be part of something bigger than yourself.”

After spending two years in the squad, she had enough tales to turn them into a book, Five Foot and Fearless, which has just hit the shelves. She says being called out to the Napier siege in 2009, during which police officer Len Snee lost his life, was the most frightening experience during her years in the AOS. “Because shots were being fired it was the most dangerous situation I’ve been in, but every call-out posed a risk.”

Most call-outs involved domestic disputes and drug and alcohol-fuelled standoffs. “You get told you’ll point a firearm at someone and they’ll do anything you ask them to, but half the people we dealt with were never told that was the way it’s meant to be,” she recalls.

“There’s always a risk we may have to use deadly force, but if someone is posing a risk to someone else then it’s our duty to protect them,” says Liz, who says she has never had to shoot someone. “But if I did I wouldn’t tell you, either.”

One of the trickiest parts of the job she shares in her book was trying to go to the toilet on stakeouts while wearing overalls. “My next goal will be to invent a pair of overalls to make it easier for women on the frontline. I doctored a pair of overalls for myself with a zip that went right around,” she explains.

After two years in the AOS, Liz quit the role and the family moved to Central Otago, where Liz is now a detective sergeant working in family violence and child protection.

A number of factors went into their decision to move – including the loss of family time as both Liz and Mike were always on call and the stress of getting babysitters in the middle of the night when both were called out.

“The lack of sleep from attending call-outs and also holding down a job full-time was sometimes hard to deal with. But despite this there were no bad things about it. It was the most incredible experience I’ve been through professionally,” says Liz.

Sometimes she misses it, but is thankful she was able to live her dream. “If I‘d never taken the chance I would have regretted it. It was an extremely privileged opportunity that I’m so fortunate to have had.”

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