Police disown Asian maverick 'recruiter'

Peter Low claims to have been given the green light to recruit potential police from Asia. Photo / The Aucklander

Police are trying to decide what to do with 25 police applicants a maverick recruiter says he has attracted from Singapore with their blessing.

Peter Low, who attracted 15,000 people to an East Auckland anti-crime rally last July, claims to have a police letter authorising him to recruit Asian officers on their behalf.

"I have five confirmed Singaporean recruits and 20 potential ones, whom I will be presenting to the police," said Mr Low after returning from a trip to Singapore and Malaysia.

He said the men were former Singaporean military and police officers aged between 25 and 28.

The police last year reached an agreement in principle with the Singapore Police for New Zealand to recruit officers from the island nation, and Mr Low said he was assisting to "speed up the process".

"The police have authorised me to do the recruiting of Asian officers, and I am doing it because I want more policemen on the streets so that they can protect the community."

Mr Low said he had already referred four local Asian recruits to the police, and the letter from police recruitment manager Gary Allcock clearly stated for him "to provide Asian people who may be interested in the New Zealand Police as a career".

But policing development manager John Mitchell said a subsequent email was sent to Mr Low on May 15, about a week after the letter was written, explicitly distancing the police from Mr Low and his group. Inspector Allcock wrote in that email: "My understanding from speaking with you previously was you were interested in supporting the police by locating quality applicants and that your interest/support was based on your community spirit.

"There is no way the police can be involved with you or your organisation if you were charging money or receiving benefits from potential applicants. This would not be acceptable."

Mr Low argued that because he was personally not charging any money to the applicants he understood the content in the first letter to still stand.

"Mr Low and his group were not asked or authorised to carry out recruiting in Singapore, or authorised to act as an agent of NZ Police in any way," said Mr Mitchell.

"NZ Police have our own processes and procedures for recruitment carried out by NZ Police staff. There are no commercial arrangements with external recruitment agencies or groups.

"There is no such arrangement and we are at a loss as to why he would think there was. We welcome him encouraging suitable community members to apply for the police in the normal way, but that is all."

He said Mr Low had been told to tell prospective applicants to apply through normal police channels.

Inspector Mitchell said more than 70 overseas Asian officers were serving in the Auckland region, with more than 200 others in prospect.