I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

But I will bear true faith and allegiance to the sea that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will will inflate the lead discharge.

The duties of the office on which I am about to enter.

So help me God, so help me God.

Welcome to the oath. I'm Chuck Rosenberg and I am honored to be your host for another compelling conversation with a fascinating guest from the World of Public Service.

In this case, public service from the other side of the world.

Our guest this week is Mike Bush, the former commissioner of the New Zealand Police, the National Police Service of that magnificent island country.

Mike spent his professional life and law enforcement more than four decades, starting as an 18 year old constable in the Bay of Plenty, serving as a detective and working his way up through the ranks of this highly professional and respected organization.

The population of New Zealand is only about five million people.

About one in six New Zealanders are of malread descent, an indigenous Polynesian community and that community has historically been underserved.

Building ties to the malread community was a priority for Mike, as was recruiting more citizens of malread descent to the department so that the New Zealand police better reflected the diversity of their country.

One of the initiatives Mike developed and promoted as commissioner of the New Zealand police was something he called prevention first.

An attempt to change the focus of policing from a model of locking people up to a model of early intervention designed to prevent crime in the first place.

Mike knew that gave his officers more of an opportunity to help people and to keep them safe.

The New Zealand police have long been leaders in community policing more than half a century ago, the New Zealand police dropped the word force from their name and to this day, their officers do not routinely carry firearms.

The New Zealand police have a well-deserved reputation for integrity and decency and Mike describes their efforts to earn and preserve that reputation and to serve the diverse communities in his country.

And though violent crime is relatively rare, Mike investigated some of the biggest and most interesting cases in New Zealand history, including the successful recovery of a five-year-old girl who had been kidnapped and a cold case investigation of a young murdered woman, solved through ingenious forensic work.

He tells both of those stories.

And while posted overseas for part of his career, Mike was a first responder to the 2004 Boxing Days tsunami that struck Thailand where he was stationed and many other Southeast Asian nations killing almost one quarter of a million people.

Mike describes how law enforcement officers from around the world responded to that horrific tragedy.

Mike Bush had a fascinating career in the New Zealand police, ultimately running the service and leading its 13,500 men and women.

He helped transform policing in his nation and is widely regarded as a visionary law enforcement professional.

...