New Zealand Police launch new recruitment campaign starring retired cops

New Zealand Police is launching its next big recruitment campaign targeting people who may not realise they are what the agency is looking for - and they’ve brought in the old hands to help spread the message. The Herald speaks to current and former cops about why they joined, and their best advice for new recruits.

It’s been a while since Donna Laban rummaged in her police-issued handbag for a baton, or Mark Davidson roped in a member of the public to make a citizen’s arrest because he was too young to do it himself.

It’s a vastly different policing landscape since these two retired officers donned the blue uniform, but they remain as enthused about policing as they did decades ago when they joined the force.

They’ve been hauled - briefly - back on to the beat to help with New Zealand Police’s new recruitment campaign by starring in a series of advertisements.

The Herald tagged along to one of the shoots for the advertising campaign, which involved packing a group of former police staff now getting the pension into a bus for a “picnic” on a windy Wellington morning.

NZ Police has launched a new recruitment campaign targeted at everyday Kiwis whose values and attributes are police material. Photo / Reagan Butler

The staff acted as extras in the advert, which shows a police officer pulling over a bus driver then encouraging her to join the police. The clip is one of several ads that will run in the campaign.

The ad highlights qualities that NZ Police wants in officers: empathy, leadership, composure, fitness, teamwork, and problem-solving.

It bears the tagline: “Do you fit the description we’re looking for?”

The campaign comes at a challenging time for police training, and follows an officer survey that painted a damning picture of the quality of new cops that said many recruits were “barely” equipped to deal with basic duties, including procedures to make an arrest.

New cop wants to ‘change the narrative’

Recently graduated officer, Constable Steven Karehana, is one of the stars of the campaign.

Karehana didn’t follow the typical route to becoming an officer.

“My journey is a bit different from everyone else. It took me 20 years from my first application,” he said.

“It was something I always wanted to do, but, rightly so, I was denied when I was younger. But I believe it was a blessing in disguise because it gave me the life experiences that I needed.”

Constable Steven Karehana starred in the new police recruitment ad campaign. Photo / Melissa Nightingale

Karehana was originally rejected because he faced a criminal charge when he was younger and received diversion, which stayed on his record. He was told to stay out of trouble and get some life experience before trying again.

When he was finally accepted, in 2023, it felt “surreal”.

“I knew that was only the start of the journey ... and every part of the way I was nervous that at any time I would get declined.”

But Karehana remained determined to push through the recruitment process because he wanted to inspire the next generation.

“I’ve come from a background where, in my family, they don’t get on with police, and I wanted to try and change that narrative.

“If I can inspire one young Māori boy, then, you know, it’s worthwhile.”

His advice to recruits was to “bring your authentic self.”

“Don’t change to fit the organisation, because the organisation wants you for who you are,” he said.

Remember what energises you, top trainer says

Director of the Royal New Zealand Police College and training, Superintendent Sam Keats, said he had been driving home one night as a teenager when he saw “half a dozen police cars” speed past with their lights flashing.

“I remember sitting there and thinking, you know, that’s the next level up, to do something in a team at all hours, going to everything the fire service and the ambulance does.”

When he started out, it was post-earthquake in Christchurch.

“It was exciting, it was rewarding, it was meaningful, but it was tough because it was people that were still kind of recovering from what the earthquake meant to them and what it meant to their property and their families,” he said.

The recruits coming through the police college were “everyday New Zealanders”, from builders, nurses, and bakers to PhD students and people straight out of high school.

The campaign bears the tagline 'do you fit the description we're looking for?' Photo / Reagan Butler

“We get everybody turn up to police, and I think, you know, there’s two things that join them. One is how diverse they are and different, but the second is, they all have this, I think, strong need and strong nature around service and duty and protection.”

Keats said what made people stand out as recruits was their values.

“I think [it’s] living our values, giving dignity to our values as an organisation, but also using those values to give dignity to others when they’ve lost them.”

He urged recruits and new officers to remember what energised them.

“It’s easy when you join police to become police, and actually we want people to stay, you know, connected to their family, stay connected to their friends, continue to be those ordinary, awesome Kiwis that they are, because that’s what gives them energy.”

A different time for female police

Scaling a backyard fence in a police uniform skirt might seem preposterous to the modern female cop, but it was a reality of the job when Donna Laban joined in 1980.

When she started, only about 7% of officers were female. These days, women make up about a quarter of the constabulary staff and nearly 40% of the total workforce, including non-sworn members.

Retired inspector Donna Laban reminisced over her early days in policing during the ad shoot. Photo / Melissa Nightingale

While Laban found her male coworkers supportive and helpful, the job still came with difficulties, including that female officers were made to wear skirts and carry police-issued handbags.

“You had to put your notebook, your baton, your handcuffs and everything in this handbag . . . honestly it was, you know ‘oh just hold on a minute, I’ll open up the handbag and get my handcuffs out’,” she said.

Laban, who was an inspector before she retired this past May, said she joined the police to help people and support the community.

“You see people at their worst time in their life and you’re trying to get them through that and manage the situation,” she said.

She said the beauty of policing was the ability to do multiple different roles. She has worked in the Criminal Investigation Bureau, Youth Aid, road policing, instructing at the Police College, and at the communication centre.

“It does give you a number of opportunities and to learn and to grow and to develop without just being stuck in one particular area.”

First arrests and best advice

Senior Sergeant Alasdair Macmillan still remembers the details of his first arrest, down to the defendant’s middle name.

“I locked him up for being drunk at the soup kitchen. Cops are very good at remembering,” he said.

His best advice for recruits was to “know the whys”.

Former Senior Sergeant Alasdair Macmillan said new cops should always ask questions. Photo / Melissa Nightingale

“Ask why and don’t just bluntly take it,” he said. “The only dumb question is the one you don’t ask, and there’s lots of situations where people just bluntly do as they’re told without knowing why.”

Former dog handler Mark Davidson retired in 2023 after 50 years’ service.

The ex-senior sergeant was just 18 when he started as a cop, but hit a hurdle when he made his first arrest for a drunk and disorderly incident.

The law in the early 1970s withheld powers of arrest from officers until they were 19.

“I had to arrest a guy in the square... so I had to ask a chap that was walking past if he could help me by doing a citizen’s arrest on this person - and he was only too happy to do that.”

Years on, Davidson said police was a job he’d be happy for his own children to join.

“You know when you leave the job that you’ve enjoyed, you have nothing but positive thoughts about it. None of us have left under a cloud. We’ve left at the right time, when we still enjoyed the job.”

Senior Sergeant Mark Davidson retired at a farewell parade in Wellington in 2023. Photo / Jed Bradley

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.