Constable Liam Guthrie grew up in Dunedin and initially wanted to be a doctor but ended up specialising in neuroscience during his studies at the University of Otago.
He never planned to join the police, but his experiences at university and in the army, where he is a second lieutenant in the territorial forces, had made him realise he enjoyed working in small teams and thinking on his feet, Const Guthrie said.
In his third year of university, Const Guthrie visited his father, police director of integrity and conduct Superintendent Jason Guthrie, in Wellington and they had a conversation.
"I couldn’t really see myself in an office job at that point.
"I wanted to do something exciting, challenging and a little bit different. My dad said ‘well, have you thought about policing?’ and I didn’t really look back from there," Const Guthrie said.
Const Guthrie comes from a proud policing background.
His father was the area commander for the Otago coastal area in Southern district for about five years and his sister is a non-sworn police employee who works in file management.
His great-uncle Sergeant Stewart Guthrie was posthumously awarded the George Cross for his heroic actions in the Aramoana massacre of 1990, which claimed the lives of 14 people.
Sgt Guthrie had been the sole charge officer at Port Chalmers police station and travelled to Aramoana, where he was one of the first responders on the scene. When he confronted the gunman, who was armed with a semi-automatic rifle, he was killed by a volley of shots.
Both his great-uncle and his father had been members of the armed offenders squad, and he hoped to also join one day, Const Guthrie said.
First, his main goal was to get through his two-year probationary period with flying colours.
There had been no direct pressure from his family, and his attitude to policing had always been about giving it a go and seeing if he liked it, Const Guthrie said.
He had requested Wellington as a place to cut his own path and to have a bit of an adventure before settling down, but he was interested in coming back to the South to work one day.
"There’s no place like home, really," Const Guthrie said.
