New Year Honours: Crime-solving policeman's perfect record

By PATRICK GOWER

After 30 years of hunting down the likes of RSA triple-killer William Bell, Detective Inspector Gavin Jones says criminals are "overrated".

Mr Jones was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to the police, or what he describes as "just doing my job".

That job has seen Mr Jones solve every one of the 20-plus murder inquiries he has headed.

But he will not go into the names of some of his best collars. "They don't rate a mention."

Talking about the exact number of murders he has worked on is "irrelevant".

And as for criminals? "I don't have a view on them, except that most of them grow out of it and that is about all we can hope for."

Mr Jones believes that police focus too much on criminals, and not enough on their victims.

This is a view born partly from his own experiences leading the hunt for Bell in December 2001, after he beat three people to death with the butt of a shotgun and left another for dead while robbing the Mt Wellington-Panmure RSA.

Already a hardened detective, Mr Jones says he thought deeply about the effects on the victims' families, friends and members of the RSA during the investigation.

Outside of work, he says, he is a "normal person" and thanks his wife of 27 years, Lynne, for standing by him through the stresses of the job.