Police target recruits from minority groups
Police have an uphill battle to recruit more women and ethnic minority groups, Official Information Act figures show.
The force has a target of mirroring the percentage of minority groups in the overall population by 2021.
The diversity targets sit under the wider target of 1800 new recruits over the next three years.
However, latest data shows the recruitment efforts have a way to go, with Ma¯ ori making up 10.7 per cent of recent recruits, against 14.9 per cent of the general population, while women made up 35.7 per cent. ‘‘Ma¯ori attraction numbers have been close to their proportion of the population but not at the level we would like, ’’police deputy chief executive of people Kaye Ryan said.
Of the 345 new recruits in the latest intake 10.1 per cent were Asian, taking them to 4.9 per cent in the police force.
Census data from 2013 showed Asian people accounted for 11.8 per cent of the population.
‘‘Current Asian numbers in the police workforce are significantly below their representation in the community, hence we are targeting recruiting more people from these communities,’’ Ryan said. The proportion of Pacific Island recruits, 6.6 per cent, almost mirrors their population of 7.4 per cent in 2013.
With the new recruits, the police force is now made up of 6.4 per cent Pacific Island people.
Women accounted for 35.7 per cent of the new recruits, with the target being 50 per cent of all recruits by 2021.
The police recruitment budget was increased in the 2017/18 financial year to $1.25 million, up from $870,000 in the 2016/17 financial year.
To attract more applicants, police released a clip they called the ‘‘world’s most entertaining police recruitment video’’.
Police confirmed the video cost about $350,000 to make – $2000 per second of footage.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said the video was targeted at 18 to 24-year-olds, women, Ma¯ori, Pacific Islanders, and people from all other ethnicities and backgrounds ‘‘to better reflect the communities we serve’’.
A further $10,000 of the recruitment budget was paid to paint rainbow stripes on a police car, in the hope it might attract more LGBT+ recruits.
In the recent recruitment drive, 12 gender-diverse individuals applied to join the police but none were successful.
The ‘‘gender-diverse’’ option was implemented as a recruit application form option in January 2016.
Police were unable to readily supply data on this, stating it would have to be sought under the Official Information Act.
Transgender academic and activist Lexie Matheson said she was unsure how many sworn officers who identify as transgender or gender-diverse were currently employed.
However, she felt police were making considerable progress toward diversifying their workforce.