Police are intensifying recruitment in Auckland to attract more Kiwis to the force and lure officers working in Australia back home.
They teamed up with Auckland’s ‘Round the Bays’ event on Sunday, revealing plans for additional recruit training wings in the city.
New Zealand Police Deputy Commissioner Jill Rogers noted that the event featured a marked 2.4km police fitness requirement, with 120 people signing up to begin the recruitment 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 launch training courses. Rogers said it proved very popular, with the second wing already in week five of its 20-week training programme.
“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.”
“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.”
Rogers said policing in New Zealand remains an appealing career due to its stability as an 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.
According to Rogers, the police exodus to Australia has definitely slowed. She said while they couldn’t match Australia’s salaries, their conditions did.
“And yes, last year we rejoined 100 officers, which is the most we have ever returned to the New Zealand Police, and a number of those were people that had tried out policing across the ditch.”
“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.”