Source: Radio New Zealand
Police have ramped up recruitment efforts in Auckland with hopes to bring more Kiwis into the force, and tempt those currently working in Australia to return home.
They partnered with ‘Round the Bays’ in Auckland on Sunday, announcing that more recruit wings were coming to the city.
New Zealand Police’s Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers told Morning Report the 2.4km police requirement was marked at the event, and 120 people signed up to start the process.
“It’s all different variances about how fast they have to go, but what generally happens is they accrue a group of points, and that tells us whether or not they’re ready to come into our pipeline to get processed as a potential applicant,” she said.”
Last year, police signed a long-term lease with Massey University in Auckland to begin training courses next month.
Rogers said it was very popular, with their second wing in week five of their 20-week training.
“We know that there’s a group of people here who, for a whole range of reasons, can’t go to our campus in Porirua,” she said.
“So excited to announce that we’ve got our third wing starting on the 29th of June and yesterday, if anything’s to go by, it’s proven to be really popular again.”
She said the majority of police training could be done at the Massey campus, but firearms and driving training was still held in Porirua.
Rogers said the policing in New Zealand was still an attractive career as it was a stable employer.
“We offer really great possibilities for people to come into our organisation and so we got 120 people who signed up yesterday, and that’s sort of the people that we’re looking for, motivated, fit and enthusiastic, ready to come into the organisation,” she said.
She said the police drain to Australia had had definitely slowed.
“We think that since we started tracking the numbers a couple of years ago, it’s definitely slowed.
“And yes, last year we rejoined 100 officers, which is the most we have ever returned to New Zealand Police and a number of those were people that had tried out policing across the ditch.”
Rogers said while they couldn’t match Australia’s pay, their conditions did.
“Our pay will always be different to what the jurisdictions across the ditch are offering,” she said.
“But the style of policing and some of the resources that we offer to our people are different and that’s what’s making people want to come back.”
The pay is not everything, Rogers said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
