‘World’s Most Entertaining Police Recruitment Video’ viewed by millions

AUCKLAND: More than 300 people have shown interest in joining the police after an innovative recruitment video was released on Sunday night.

The video has been viewed more than a million times and reached 2.9 million Facebook users, which police hope will further boost recruit numbers.

The ‘‘World’s Most Entertaining Police Recruitment Video’’ went live at 5pm on Sunday.

And as the title suggests, it is an actionpacked and comedic take on policing in Aotearoa.

The video, which runs for two and ahalf minutes, stars a huge range of police staff ‘‘in a fun, fastpaced sequence’’ and features different facets of police work, from the armed offenders squad, to the dive and dog squads, the Eagle helicopter and Youth Aid officers, as well as frontline work.

The Auckland Police pipe band also makes a cameo appearance — as well as Black Ferns captain and policewoman Fiao’o Faamausili, and Sergeant Sonny Iosefo, who made headlines with his dance moves in the police Running Man challenge.

Seventy staff members, including Commissioner Mike Bush, put their hands up to be involved in the video.

Yesterday police said the video was living up to its name, with ‘‘a massive national and international online response’’.

In just 12 hours, the video on the New Zealand Police Recruitment Facebook page reached 2.9 million people and was viewed one million times.

‘‘The feedback we’ve been receiving from across New Zealand and the world since yesterday’s launch has been phenomenal,’’ Mr Bush said.

‘‘We always knew this would be popular but the results have . . . exceeded our expectations.’’

Yesterday morning there had been an 800% increase in traffic to the New Cops recruitment website.

As well as this, 333 full profiles had been created by people interested in joining the force.

‘‘It’s exciting to see so many people embracing our approach to recruitment and sharing the message online with potential future officers,’’ said Mr Bush.

He shared some of the feedback from overseas.

‘‘The NZ Police have done it again and produced an awesome police recruitment video,’’ PC Mark Walsh of the Hampshire Police in the UK tweeted.

‘‘It fully exemplifies the qualities of policing; diversity, courage, service, humour to name a few.’’

San Diego Police Department Chief Shelley Zimmerman even tried to piggyback off the campaign posting: ‘‘Well done NZ Police — we are hiring too.’’

‘‘We encourage people to keep sharing the video via their own social media channels and to tag anyone they think will make a great cop,’’ Mr Bush said.

‘‘This is an encouraging step for us in gaining hundreds of new recruits.’’ — NZME