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The nation’s top Maori cop says extra police should be drawn from under-represented communities here rather than by recruitment from overseas.
Maori communities and iwi have reacted negatively to new Police Minister Stuart Nash’s suggestion of fast tracking visa applications to allow some of the 1800 extra police promised in the coalition agreement to come from overseas
Assistant commissioner Wally Haumaha says the face of policing has to reflect the face of the community.
He says the suggestion of overseas recruits did not come from the police and the next three years should be seen as a great opportunity to increase the number of Maori, Pasifika and Asian recruits.
"Our Maori staff across this country have taken some significant steps around recruitment, and also the programme ‘Do you care enough to become a cop?’ That was deliberately put together after looking at different ways of recruiting and reaching the heart of our communities," Mr Haumaha says.
The police are also working with Te Wananga o Aotearoa on pre-recruitment courses in Counties Manukau, Waikato and Wellington, and they recently teamed up with Rotorua girls and boys’ high schools to put police studies in the classroom.
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