Police have undertaken to review the response to a 111 call made from outside Kaitaia on Saturday night.
A Kaitaia woman who feared for her life and the lives of her children, after being chased for more than 15km from Kaitaia on Saturday night by a vehicle that she initially thought was a police car, dialled 111 after barricading herself and her children in their rural home.
The person who took the call asked for all sorts of details, including her address and phone number, and assured her that a police unit would be dispatched.
As of 4.17pm on Tuesday afternoon the unit had not arrived. In fact she had had no response at all.
The woman, who did not wish to be identified, said she finished work at around 10.15pm on Saturday. She stopped at a service station on her way home, and when she left, another car, which she thought was police car, pulled out after her. It followed her, albeit at greater than tailgating distance, to Kaitaia College, by which time she was beginning to think the driver's behaviour was "a bit weird".
The car was still behind her when she reached the open road on the way to Ahipara, so she sped up. It sped up too. When she slowed it slowed.
She became so concerned that she missed her turn-off and continued towards Ahipara, finally turning on to Sandhills Road.
"I'm not sure why I did that - a remote road where there was no one to call on for help, but I'm familiar with it, and I thought I could get away," she said.
She did manage to get away - having "hit the metal" at 120km/h, she got far enough ahead on the undulating, unsealed road to turn on to a side road while she was out of sight of the pursuing driver after cresting a hill.
Having "lost them," she headed home, locking every door and window, turning the inside lights off and the outside lights on, then dialled 111. Assured that the police were on their way, she armed herself with a bat and waited. All night.
"Every time I heard a car I wondered if it was the police, but it wasn't," she said.
At one point, while she was still talking to police communications, she thought she heard someone walking on the road outside the house. She also thought she saw a light, possibly from a torch or a cell phone. She told the call taker that.
"I was shaking. I was a real mess. I was frightened," she said.
She said on Tuesday that she dismayed by the lack of police response. Given the number of CCTV cameras dotted around Kaitaia she had no doubt that the police could identify the car if they wanted to.
"I know [the police] have got some big things going on up here, and I know they're over-stretched," she added.
"But they still have to protect people don't they? I'm just gobsmacked by the lack of response. I'm horrified. This could have ended up another homicide."
The nearest neighbours were 100m away in either direction, although she supposed she could have run that far had it come to that. In fact she had steeled herself to do the best she could with the bat if her home was invaded, and to tell the children to run.
When she went home after a night shift on Sunday she took a roundabout route, with several detours, and kept a close watch on what was behind her.
"Every time I saw lights I was petrified," she said.
"When I got home on Sunday night I saw that someone had written [in the dust] on the back window of my car 'Follow me.' That finished me off," she said.
She also commented on a brief published in the Northland Age on August 9, quoting police as saying they were not amused when a Matauri Bay man reported an early-morning disturbance, and told communications that he had a firearm. He was interviewed and warned that he should not make that remark.
Armed police had arrived at his address.
"Maybe that's what you have to do," she said.
"Maybe if you tell them you've got a gun they'll turn up."
Inspector Al Symonds (Whangarei) said police responded to hundreds of calls for service every day, and made an assessment of those calls based on the information available to them at the time.
"In this case, we are reviewing our response on the night," he said.
"We are currently assessing the possibility that the job details have not been dispatched to local staff so that they could attend. Further review of exactly what has occurred is currently under way."