"My goal when I became operational was to get that award so I'm stoked to get it."
Ms Lewis is only the fifth female dog handler in the history of New Zealand Police and one of two currently working in New Zealand.
She spent nine years as a frontline officer in Whangarei before chasing her dream of becoming a dog handler.
The duo became operational in November 2015, working initially in Dunedin as part of the Southern District before transferring back "home" in Whangarei where Ms Lewis created history becoming the region's first female dog handler.
The canine fighting unit hit the ground running in Northland and in their first year in the district had 45 crime catches, resulting in 55 offenders being caught and 95 offences cleared.
They are also skilled in search and rescue and victim recovery work, and helped find the body of a missing person in the Far North.
When not on the frontline they have engaged in community and prevention events, including school visits and recruitment seminars.
"Mist is such a level-headed dog. She can switch in and out of business mode pretty quickly. With the students and rest home visits she's real passive and lets them pat her."
Ms Lewis has also been involved with the foster pups programme in Northland, taking in police dog pups and socialising them until their first training course.
One of the team's first catches in Northland involved three juvenile offenders who carried out an aggravated robbery of a service station, taking the cash register. All three had weapons - a knife, metal bar and a hammer.
As the first on scene, Ms Lewis cast Mist who picked up a scent and tracked behind a nearby business, finding two of the three males. The duo then tracked the third man to a house.
To complete the job, Mist also sniffed out the missing cash register which had been thrown into nearby bushes.
