Police defend Singapore recruitment plan

Police human resources general manager Wayne Annan confirmed today police had been speaking to their Singapore counterparts about recruiting a group of up to 20 Singaporean officers in order to boost understanding of Asian culture among local police.

"The purpose of it is for New Zealand police to be able to learn about Asian cultures."

It had nothing to do with meeting recruitment targets, he said.

"The New Zealand Police are currently at full strength," he told NZPA.

"We currently have a waiting list of people looking to join. We're going to finish this year just slightly above or one person below the target for this financial year and our plans into next year are that we can satisfy those numbers."

Talks had taken place at a "high level", but it was still at a concept stage and no concrete measures had yet been taken to recruit Singaporean officers, most of whom would be ethnically Chinese.

At present most Singaporean officers retired at 45 and it was possible police would propose a scheme where they could come and do a stint in New Zealand once they hit that age.

However, it was possible that retirement age was about to change. If that was the case, then seconding officers or an exchange between the countries were options to achieve the same goal.

Mr Annan said Singapore was chosen as it had a similar colonial past and legal system to New Zealand, it was multicultural and most people spoke good English.

It was also about the same size as New Zealand.

NZ First deputy leader Peter Brown last week voiced concern about high numbers of Asian immigrants, who he said sometimes failed to integrate into New Zealand society.

But NZ First's law and order spokesman Ron Mark told NZPA the party had no problem with recruiting cops from Singapore.

The plan had nothing to do with filling the 1000 extra cops, which police were well on to the way to getting.

The aim was to get a police force that more accurately reflected the population.

"Back in 2002 I was telling the police they should be recruiting from Hong Kong," he said.

"I welcome it actually. New Zealand First thinks it's a good idea. We have a lot in common with Singapore."

Asked about Mr Brown's concerns, Mr Mark said immigration policy did need to be debated.

The debate for NZ First had always been about "having people that we need, not people who need us".

"We need police officers of Asian background," he said.

"We do need officers in New Zealand who speak Mandarin, who speak Cantonese, who understand the culture."

Police had also been doing well at encouraging more Maori recruits, he said.