Mandeep Kaur Sidhu, First Kiwi-Indian Woman NZ Police Officer, Becomes Senior Sergeant

Mandeep was born and brought up in Malwa, Punjab. She reportedly migrated to Australia in 1999, at the age of 26. After living there for a short while, she moved to New Zealand and initially worked as a Taxi Driver.  She joined the country's police force in 2004.

She worked as an ethnic people’s community relations officer at Henderson Police station in Waitemata. As per the reports, it was her childhood dream to become a police officer. As a community relations officer, she has had to attend community meetings, host media programmes, look into the problems of the ethnic populations, give cultural and ethnic advice and ensure cultural harmony.

Furthermore, she has worked as a frontline officer in a number of areas such as road policing, family violernce, investigation support as well as neighbourhood and community policing.

A devout Sikh who regularly visits Gurudwara, Mandeep has been respected by the police force for her hardwork and her journey of overcoming cultural and personal barriers she faced while raising her two children.

Mandeep spent first few years away from her children. She eventually won the custody via Indian courts to bring her children to New Zealand. In an interview with Radio NZ, she said, "This photograph is of the day I'm leaving India. My daughter is eight and my son is six. They were not told I was going overseas. We were afraid my in-laws would try to take them from me.”