Kelly started her career in 1999 working as an emergency communicator and dispatcher before graduating as a sworn police officer in 2001 and returning to Auckland as a frontline Constable.
Policing was the only career she had wanted to pursue following a few years in the military after finishing college.
She spent her first few years working in frontline response and then team policing before a couple of short term opportunities that saw her working in provincial and rural policing in Northland.
In 2004 she moved to Wellington and promoted to Sergeant the following year, was married and had three children over the next four years.
She promoted to senior sergeant in 2012, Inspector in 2015 and Superintendent in 2019, whilst working in various roles in prevention, road policing, response, the police emergency centre and completed a master’s degree in international security in 2017.
She is currently the President of the Police Leaders Guild in NZ Police and Director of the Frontline Safety Programme and Tactical Response Model.
Her husband is still serving as a police officer on the frontline and her three teenage children are all interested in policing careers, so she feels an immense responsibility to ensure NZ Police are doing everything they can to ensure their officers have the tools, training and capability they need to keep themselves as safe as possible in a an increasingly challenging operational environment.
