Community
Councils around the country were once responsible for traffic enforcement, and Invercargill’s Glenn Cockroft has a museum filled with much of the old memorabilia. (Watch the full video of Mike & About tour of this incredible place).
Traffic patrol cars, the first fitted telephones, uniforms, badges, he even has photos of all four of the chief traffic inspectors for Invercargill – one of whom was his father Graeme Cockroft, who served from 1954 – 1989.
“What I wanted to make sure is that, this history is preserved,” he said.
Invercargill’s first traffic inspector was appointed in February 1924 – Earnie Stopford, and Glenn also worked for the ICC, the Ministry of Transport and New Zealand Police for 24 years – right through the transition up until 1999.
In late 1986 the Government introduced legislation which meant that all income from traffic infringements were to be paid to Government, rather than a percentage which had occurred previously – “obviously at that point the economics of running the department was not viable as it would have then become a cost to the ratepayer for it to continue,” he said.
So on the 1st of April 1989, (65 years from the first Traffic Inspector being appointed here in Invercargill) the last five remaining City Council Traffic Departments were taken over by the Ministry of Transport ( Invercargill City Council, Napier City Council, Auckland City Council, Tamaki City Council and Mount Albert Borough Council).
The on the 1st of July 1992, the Ministry of Transport Traffic Safety Service was integrated into the New Zealand Police.
After leaving school and working for a short time at the Alliance, Glenn got a job as a traffic officer cadet at the ICC, where he spent the first 18 months on administrative tasks, dealing with the public and as a passenger out at night with senior officers in the patrol cars.
“There was a lot of training involved.”
Both Glenn and his father have Queen’s Service Medals for their Services to Road Safety in New Zealand.
The former traffic officer is currently the Southland manager of CrestClean and is about to retire, so he can finally finish his museum. There’s a trip to the North Island soon to pick up another old patrol car from a former colleague. Glenn has former officers donate their old gear to the museum all of the time.
Located in Otatara, it all started in a room in his garage and then he built a bigger shed. But that wasn’t big enough so he built a slightly bigger shed – and his wife wasn’t impressed.
“When I cleared the site she realised it was bigger than the house.”
The museum is available by appointment at weekends (until official retirement), and Glenn can be contacted on 027 307 3383