The Herald understands Australian police had concerns about graduate's gang connections.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) raised concerns earlier this year about a newly-graduated New Zealand police constable.
The Herald understands they were sharing information about his alleged links to gangs.
The tip–off about the constable – who had spent time living in Australia – has raised questions about the vetting of applicants prior to them being accepted as recruits at the Royal New Zealand Police College (RNZPC).
A police spokesman told the Herald police stand by their processes and their checks with Australian counterparts during the man’s recruitment didn’t disclose any criminal history about the applicant.
Information later provided by the AFP sparked an investigation by the National Integrity Unit (NIU) – the NZ police team set up in 2020 to detect and weed out corrupt officers.
The AFP’s concerns arrived just after the officer had graduated from police college and Counties Manukau District Commander Superintendent Shanan Gray said the allegations were then thoroughly investigated.
“As a result, police were satisfied there was no ongoing concern or risk associated with that information,” he told the Herald.
Separately, trainers at police college warned Counties police bosses they had concerns about the graduate’s conduct, and when he started work in Counties Manukau, the constable was put on a behavioural improvement plan.
Such plans involve mentoring and close monitoring of a staff member’s performance.
A February 13 email obtained by the Herald shows police college staff gave Counties Manukau deployment manager Inspector Richard Wilkie a heads up about their concerns a few days before the graduate started work there as a probationary constable.
“My staff have identified that [the graduate] has fallen short in two of our values – professionalism and respect,” RNZPC initial training acting manager Karen Smith said in the email.
[The graduate] has fallen short of two of our values - professionalism and respect
She said the graduate’s “diary notes” showed “good examples of where he has not displayed these values”.
“My staff have suggested some corrective action examples of how he can show professionalism and respect - this area might need some more work,” Smith said in the email.
Attached to the email was a copy of a draft behavioural improvement plan for the constable compiled by Smith’s staff at the college as background for Wilkie.
The plan spanned six pages. All detail about the nature of the officer’s conduct, his apparently problematic diary entries, and the plan to rectify his behaviour, was redacted in the copy obtained by the Herald.
RNZPC director Superintendent Sam Keats described the matter as a confidential employment issue.
“The best that we can do is continue to identify and improve the processes that we have in place to detect [concerns] as soon as possible and act as quickly as possible on those instances as they occur,” he told the Herald.
Police Association President Chris Cahill told the Herald it was “very uncommon” in his experience for the AFP to issue an alert about a New Zealand police graduate and it highlighted why thorough background checks were so critical.
“The importance of vetting before people join the police college can’t be overstated, and really in-depth, strong vetting so everything is known before they get to college,” he said.
The police vetting process involves a criminal background check and also assesses a candidate’s suitability for a role with police by delving into their finances, family and social media interactions.
Data obtained by the Herald under the Official Information Act (OIA) shows in the two years to August 1 last year, 162 police recruit applicants were rejected.
Police would not specify how many of these were declined because of concerns about their links to gangs.
However, an earlier OIA on the subject revealed some insights into why candidates didn’t make the cut.
Between January 1, 2021, and August 1, 2022, 19 applicants were rejected after issues were identified during vetting or when being interviewed by police.
Nine were rejected because of links or perceived links to organised crime, gangs, or groups known for foreign interference.
Another six were turned down over allegations of violence, sexual assault or drug offending, three were excluded because of a history of family harm, and four would-be police recruits were unsuccessful because of concerns their values were misaligned with those of police.
Cahill said in some cases applicants with gang connections are not a risk.
“We know in some communities that we want to recruit from, gangs are prevalent and there will be links. It’s just understanding whether that link is a risk, or if it’s one that actually doesn’t present a risk,” he said.
On the flipside, Cahill warned the threat of organised crime infiltrating government agencies was “very real”.
“That’s why it’s so important to get that vetting right. We are seeing it right across [government] agencies. There is value in having insiders and police need to be very much aware of that,” he said.
Keats agreed insider threats were a concern.
“All we can do is continue to provide robust training and support to our people so that our whole organisation is alert and is helping to support our resilience to infiltration and insider threat,” he said.
The Herald’s previously revealed a case of a police recruit who was filmed partying and taking drugs with patched members of the Comancheros motorcycle gang.
The existence of the footage was discovered during a police investigation leaving the rookie’s superiors concerned the video could be used to blackmail him at a later date.
The young recruit was dismissed from police college just weeks before he was due to graduate.
Michael Morrah is a senior investigative reporter/team leader at theHerald. He won News Journalist of the Year at the 2025 Voyager Media Awards and has twice been named reporter of the year at the NZ Television Awards. He has been a broadcast journalist for 20 years and joined the Herald’s video team in July 2024.