Police are on track to achieve their target of 600-700 recruits in this financial year, Police Commissioner Rob Robinson said yesterday.
He appeared before Parliament's law and order select committee, which sought information on the $1 million allocated in this year's Budget for attracting extra recruits.
"We're confident that by June 30 we will be within range of our targets," Mr Robinson said.
Deputy Commissioner Lyn Provost said more than 600 police were likely to graduate from Police College in Porirua during the year, from between 600 and 700 recruits.
Particular efforts were being made to get more recruits from the "pressure points" of Auckland and Counties Manukau - police liked to recruit from the areas people would return to for duty, but those areas had proved difficult.
"We're actively looking at Canterbury and Otago to see if there are any people there that we can move north, because we know those are fertile recruitment areas for police," Ms Provost said.
"So it's tight, but we are tracking in the right direction."
The overall attrition rate of about 5 per cent was slightly less than last year and police numbers would be on target if that did not increase.
Labour MP Taito Phillip Field raised concerns about the number of Maori and Pacific Island recruits. Police wanted to represent the population, but Maori recruits accounted for only 11.7 per cent and Pacific Island 3.7 per cent, he said.
In 1996 - the latest census figures available - Maori made up 15 per cent of New Zealand's population and Pacific Islanders 6 per cent.
Ms Provost said the make-up of the police was changing, but it was going to take five years before new recruitment policies bore fruit. However, changes were being seen: seven of the nine prizewinners in the last intake were women.
Mr Robinson said a key factor to successful recruiting across all sectors of the community was family attitude - "whether the family values that as being a reasonable service for the community".
"Rather than just targeting the person that's coming in, we're having to have a holistic view and, from that point of view, it is key opinion-makers in communities ... that can take our message out."
- NZPA
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