Source: New Zealand Police (National News)
Our latest work on targeting serious and organised criminals, a new way of training our recruits and the inaugural Police Conference with our Australian colleagues.
Targeting serious and organised criminals
Last week our staff made significant inroads into serious and organised crime in our country, with the successful termination of a large synthetic cannabis and money laundering operation.
The operation was led by our new Organised Crime and Asset Recovery Taskforce based in Tauranga and involved approximately 80 staff, working together across Wellington, Auckland, Waikato as well as the Bay of Plenty.
Several people are now facing a significant number of charges relating to manufacturing, possessing and selling psychoactive substances and money laundering.
We also restrained a number of assets under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act which include a residential property in Tauranga and multiple motor vehicles including a Hummer.
Congratulations to Detective Senior Sergeant Nick Pritchard and his team, who coordinated the operation and every staff member involved.
New way of training our recruits
On Monday I met and officially welcomed our newest 20 recruits to the NZ Police family – Section Five of Wing 314. It was fantastic to meet the recruits who were supported at the welcome by their Wing Patron, Sir Noel Robinson.
You will have seen reports that we are trialling a non-residential recruit wing in Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) in an effort to attract more people from the region which has been identified as being one of our target recruit areas. The training is identical to that delivered at the Royal New Zealand Police College in Wellington and these recruits have had to meet the same entry criteria as all Police recruits nationally.
This pilot is the result of direct feedback from potential recruits who said that moving to Wellington was a barrier, particularly those with young children, family and community commitments.
We want to ensure we have the very best recruits available, and the Tāmaki Makaurau pilot is one way of helping us to achieve this.
We’ve received positive feedback from our community about the pilot and we look forward to watching the recruits on their journey.
I want to wish Section Five of Wing 314 every success as they begin their training.
Police Conference 2018
Today and tomorrow I’m in Melbourne, alongside approximately 150 delegates from New Zealand Police and the Australian state and federal Police Services attending the inaugural Police Conference 2018.
Hosted by Australia and New Zealand Police Commissioners and delivered by the Australia New Zealand Police Advisory Board, the Conference has a future focus and will look at factors shaping the policing environment and police workforce – trust and confidence, youth, capability and emerging technology.
The Conference aims to position police and the police workforce to meet the challenges which will benefit all of our communities. Many policing organisations around the world are under constant pressure to react to ‘today’s crisis.’ Together with my Australian colleagues we will be looking to explore the issues that affect, influence and impact policing now as well as in the future so we can continue to ensure the safety and security of all our communities.
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