October 14, 2012
Police look for more Maori, Asian recruits
The police are concerned their ranks are too old and too white.
They’ve kicked off a $450,000 campaign to get a range of recruits who better reflect New Zealand’s increasingly multicultural population.
They say the numbers of Maori, Pacific Island and Asian police have risen over the past decade, but the proportion of non-Pakeha officers has not changed significantly.
Currently Maori make up 11.5 percent of the force, the same percentage as in 2002, even though there has been a 31 percent increase in the number of Maori police over that period.
Superintendent Dave Trappitt, the acting general manager of public affairs, says 2500 people had taken a recruitment seminar since the launch of the campaign, with a third of them women, 14 percent Maori, 13 percent Pasifika and 11 percent Asian.