Kate Pirovano - Making a difference

A 60s baby, growing up in Levin in the Horowhenua, Kate Pirovano reckons she was the family ‘sports edition’, arriving well after two brothers.
“I was horse crazy, a bit of a tomboy so Mum sent me to boarding school in New Plymouth for two years to teach me how to be a lady,” grins Kate.
The family budget didn’t allow for a horse float so Kate, aged 11, biked 6.4kms on her gold Raleigh 20 bicycle, saddle across the handle bars and bridle over her shoulder, to the family block of land. She’d then ride kilometres more to Pony Club events.
While she nailed a local 100m freestyle record, aged nine, which stood for more than 20 years, Kate wagged school sports day. “I hated it.”
In her 30s she got into competitive mountain biking and multisport, and worked part-time as a life guard at the local pool. It was all good training to support her bid to get into the police. Kate’s scored 11 Australasian Police and Emergency Services Games golds and 10 silvers, placings in Police national mountain biking and cross country championships, run a marathon, and clocked firsts and placings in two major mountain biking events locally, including the Motatapu.
Unfortunately, it was the sad loss of her mother back when Kate was just 28 that sparked a desire for a life that “made a difference”. “I was a single mum with an eight-year-old daughter and I had an epiphany.”
An eyesight issue delayed her acceptance into NZ Police College, until revolutionary new corrective laser surgery was accepted by a very strict police regime. In the meantime the recruiting officer asked her to run the town’s first Victim Support Group. She worked out of the Levin Police Station for three years – the first eight months as a volunteer before full-time. “The whole time I was teaching Aquacise and getting fit.”
In 1996, aged 33, Kate headed off to five months police training at Porirua. After four years frontline policing in Palmerston North she spent two years community policing in a challenging suburb. “We had Mongrel Mob and Black Power all living right by the police station.”
On one occasion, just after a local gang murder, Kate spotted a young offender breaking his bail conditions. “He had a wee backpack on and I ended up grabbing that and swinging around with him as he tried to make off until back-up arrived,” she recalls. “He had an axe in his backpack and was after retribution so that was a crisis averted.”
“As a community cop you try to work with these young offenders. An alternative education programme kicked in while I was there and I started to play basketball with them and visit the school to build up that trust and confidence.”
Kate set up one of New Zealand’s first volunteer community policing groups in Palmerston North.
She was the only female on a large police and Armed Offenders Squad team that did a big raid in Otaki on a gang pad in the early hours. “We were sitting waiting to drive down – 25 or 30 of us, and an Aussie documentary about breasts came on TV. I wasn’t sure where to look,” she grins. As with any large organisation inclusiveness has been “a work in progress,” she says. “But we’re getting there.”
“I always felt I had to do five times the work to be as good as the guys as I lacked that extra strength. I’d get a bit dogged about it and think, ‘I have to solve this’.”
After two years in Auckland from 2002 on the America’s Cup and Auckland inquiries team, Kate discovered Alexandra and fell in love with the south. A job arose with Queenstown Police in 2004 and by 2005 Kate was promoted to sergeant – one of the resort’s first two female sergeants.
She became renowned among Queenstown’s late night party fraternity for her strict, no nonsense approach to the excessive alcohol abuse police constantly witnessed. One night windows in the downtown Seniors Citizen’s Rooms were smashed. The offender drove off in a vehicle registered to a local company. “I rang the boss, who gave me the employee’s number. He was really angry,” says Kate. “The kid was really drunk so I pretended to be a friend, phoned and said, ‘Hey mate, meet ya at Red Rock for a drink!’ When he arrived it was, ‘Gidday mate. You’re under arrest. It was the easiest arrest I’d ever done,” she grins.
She worked some stressful late shifts searching for intoxicated young girls reported missing by friends. “These drunk teen girls on holiday all said ‘Queenstown’s a safe place’. It is until one person decides it’s not and you’re in his path,” says Kate.
Assisting a North Island woman victim of domestic abuse and supporting her through the court process to freedom - the perpetrator incarcerated, was extremely rewarding. “Just the relief on her face, like a cloud had lifted. She became a different woman.”
Kate is firmly against legalising cannabis. “Working up north the guys told me they all got started on cannabis then progressed to harder drugs.” She’s also been a strong advocate for educating tourist drivers about our road rules. Kate worked hard during her time policing at Queenstown Airport, with help from a friend at Customs, to trial an IT kiosk solution with funding from the AA (Automobile Association).
Part of the 75th Women in Policing Relay in 2016 locally, Kate, who retired in 2020, and her horse, Slide, are still a colourful addition to local parades, from Anzac Day to Winter Festival. “Horses had a police role to play in the early days and it’s my passion so I still love to do it now.”