Police terminate recruit's employment due to 'conflict of interest'

Applications to join the police soared during the country's Covid-19 lockdown. Photo / NZPA

A NZ Police recruit's employment has been terminated after an "undisclosed conflict of interest relating to a personal relationship" was revealed.

While the police refuse to confirm what the conflict of interest is due to privacy reasons, Stuff are reporting the recruit was found to be living with a member of the Mongrel Mob.

Police deputy chief executive Kaye Ryan said there is no evidence police databases were being inappropriately accessed.

In 2019, a corrupt Auckland police officer who sold police database information to gangs was jailed.

Stuff understand the pair were living together in the upper North Island.

Stuff are also reporting the police recruit is a woman.

Ryan told the Herald "all recruits go through vetting and a formal interview process to determine their suitability for the role".

However, Stuff say the relationship was only discovered days before the woman's graduation, mentioning it was not picked up by police vetting procedures.

In March of this year, a National Integrity Unit was created to "protect against the risk of corruption and, where appropriate, investigate it".

The unit works closely with the Police Professional Conduct team and help ensure integrity is not destroyed.

This comes after police recruitment was frozen in June after a surge in applications during the nationwide lockdown.

The Herald reported

in June that 4000 people were at some stage of the recruitment process, and about 600 people were applying to join each month.

"Police acknowledge that as organised criminal groups attempt to grow and proliferate, it is important we remain vigilant against attempts to infiltrate, and have measures in place to protect our staff as much as possible."

"However in this instance there was no evidence of an attempt to deliberately infiltrate police" Ryan said.