As I understand it, emergency workers in the UK without this "special training" would have just looked on.
utter bo**ocks Krypton John, you clearly have an agenda to pursue here.
Note that your heroic policewoman (and she did an excellent job) was off-duty and may have been constrained by professional protocols had she been on-duty on the beach.
If you don't understand the dangers posed by swift-water (and by this I mean inland flooding not coastal tides) then you should try standing up in 2 feet of water moving at 5 mph - some of the 'special training' you dismiss so readily.
Surely even in NZ you understand the first rule of first aid is not to become another casualty????