Kerre Woodham: Erwood needs no further punishment

It must be a huge relief for Senior Constable Jono Erwood, for his family and for the people of Mokau that justice has prevailed and he has been discharged without conviction for a drink-driving offence.

Justice is not always administered in courts of law, but in this case, as Judge Louis Bidois so correctly ruled, a conviction and the consequences of that conviction would be out of all proportion to the crime.

Yes, Jono Erwood drove after having a few drinks, but he was responding to an emergency - and in small communities it's all hands on deck.

Erwood had life-saving medical equipment with him, and although he could have tried to find a sober driver, he decided not to waste time and drove straight to the scene.

It's unreasonable to expect people to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and yet for many members of rural communities, that's precisely what they are.

Invariably, there's a small pool of people who keep towns going - they're involved with the school, with search and rescue, they're volunteer ambulance and fire officers.

Maybe we could add one more job to the list and provide any sole-charge police officer with a roster of volunteers who could cover for the officer on their day off.

They wouldn't have powers of arrest, but they could be trained in the use of emergency equipment and be the first port of call in a crisis.

Erwood now has to wait for the result of a police internal inquiry before he finds out if he gets to keep his job, but the judge, the Mokau community and many others feel that it would be a travesty for Jono Erwood to be punished any further.