Police doing justice to nation’s diversity

The thin blue line is even thinner when it comes to Pacific Island women on the beat, but Emmy Garnons-Williams is helping change that as police recruitment reflects an increasingly diverse nation.

New Zealanders with Pacific Island roots comprise about 7 per cent of the population but only about 5 per cent of the frontline police force. Of the latter group, just 15 per cent are women.

Maori make up about 15 per cent of the population but just 11 per cent of police.

Constable Garnons-Williams, from Wellington, is in her first year of policing, and said one of the biggest things she learned on her second career path into the force was resilience.

‘‘I’ve lived in Wellington all my life. And seeing cops out there, I don’t see enough Pacific Island females. There’s not enough.’’

Fellow officer and New Zealand Rugby Women’s Player of the Year Selica Winiata is another who takes great pride in the uniform – both black and blue.

Fresh from receiving the accolade at the New Zealand Rugby Awards on Thursday, the speedster from Manawatu joked with Sky Sports commentator Scotty J Stevenson about policing the beat in her home town of Palmerston North.

‘‘Do they give you a car or do they just make you run after them?’’ Stevenson asked during the ceremony. ‘‘Yeah, they normally send me out before the dogs,’’ Winiata joked.

Superintendent Wallace Haumaha, NZ Police deputy chief executive of Maori, Pacific and Ethnic Services, said his office was ‘‘fully aware of the need to increase the diverse make-up of our people’’.

‘‘We are actively recruiting from all communities including Pacific and ethnic to meet the growing demand of New Zealand’s increasingly diverse population.’’

Garnons-Williams took a more circuitous route into the force. She was already married with two young children when she decided to become a police officer.

‘‘I’d been in banking for quite a while and I came to the point in my career where I liked helping people but couldn’t go any further and I remembered I wanted to be a cop when I was back at college.

‘‘And so I thought, ‘I’m going to do it’. I don’t care how old I am and if I’ve got kids.

‘‘I wanted to be out there and let the community know there are Samoan-speaking police officers.

‘‘I wish I’d done it a lot earlier, but I’m glad I’ve done it now.’’