Police bring 120 jobs to region
A recruiting drive will be underway soon to fill 120 new jobs at the police’s new nonemergency communications and digital centre to be set up on the Ka¯piti Coast.
Police Commissioner Mike Bush said the new roles had been established as part of a wider project to improve the way police provided its service to the public.
The new communications hub in Paraparaumu will be the first point of contact for many members of the public, and will play an important role in building the public’s trust and confidence in police, Bush said.
Police define a non-emergency call as one from the public reporting a nonurgent crime where there is no immediate danger.
The centre was designed to increase police capacity to meet demand for the 1.8 million calls to local stations every year.
‘‘We aspire to be the world’s safest country and have the trust and confidence of all, ‘‘ Bush said.
‘‘To achieve this, our commitment to service must be central to everything we do. So this year we’re setting ourselves up to transform the way we provide our service to the public.’’
Bush said the centre would support frontline staff, ‘‘because we know the public still want to engage face-to-face with local police in their community’’.
It was announced in May’s Budget that the police budget would increase to almost $300 million over four years, as the Government attempted to bolster frontline staff.
An extra 920 officers will be able to be hired in the coming year, along with 240 support staff.
‘‘We are increasing our overall resources, and changing the way we work to provide a better service to those contacting Police in both emergency and non-emergency situations,’’ Bush said.
Police aimed to have 50 new staff before Christmas, and the full 120 by the end of next year.
It is anticipated the Paraparaumu site, on Ihakara St, will open later this year when fit-out and recruitment is done.
The building will not have police branding as it is not a police station.
Under the new centralised telephony model, all external calls to local stations are answered by call-takers in Auckland, a police spokeswoman said.
The centralised telephony model has been rolled out to six of the 12 police districts. The full rollout is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
As part of the centralisation, six dedicated telephonists’ positions have been disestablished.
One left police before their district went to the centralised model while the remaining five are to be reassigned or reappointed to other jobs.
‘‘Centralising telephony and increasing our resources will improve our service to people who want to talk to us about non-emergency matters and get advice and information,’’ the spokeswoman said.
‘‘This is an area we know we need to get better at and the new non-emergency centre is part of a programme of work we are doing to transform our service delivery.’’