Police Recruiting Standards

Both the Dom Post and The Press editorials are on police recruiting standards. The Press:

Police recruiters have lowered entry requirements. They have agreed to let recruits who have not filled all their course requirements graduate on a form of probation. Now, it looks as if they have turned a blind eye to substandard intellectual performance among some recruits.

The police have sought to keep this quiet, unsuccessfully. They will be smarting over the resulting publicity. For one thing, the shortcomings are surely not representative of the vast majority of new and budding police officers. As well, it will simply add more discomfort to the image crisis suffered in the wake of inquiries into the dreadful problems around rape complaints.

Nevertheless, the over-sensitivity is doing the police no good. It is safe to expect that the public would respect them more – and be readier to dismiss the concerns about a dumbing-down in recruitment standards – if the hierarchy did not appear so furtive.

The smart thing for the police to do would be to set out frankly and clearly the true implications of attempting to meet New Zealand First’s fatuous target. The dumb thing would be to insist that there is nothing to see here. With the evidence continuing to seep out at intervals, the police bosses are the ones who risk looking stupid.

The Dom Post:

Now, more than ever, the police need to be rebuilding public confidence. There have been too many bungles, too many mis-steps for its faith to be maintained. That is why a report that indicated the police are lowering standards for recruits should be ringing alarm bells in the Beehive and in police headquarters. That it is not is simply confirmation of the problem.

The standard now is that recruits have to pass a cognitive test proving they are of at least “low average” intelligence – as smart or smarter than at least 23 per cent of the population. As the report points out, that means many criminals and members of the public would be in a position to outsmart the least intelligent of the police.

Despite assurances to the contrary, it is clear that the low standard is being driven by the need to meet the Government’s promise of 1000 extra frontline staff by 2009. That is a mistake, and one that could have tragic consequences.

The police have powers that no one else in the community has, powers that go to the heart of people’s civil liberties. The law allows them to arrest, they can detain, they can demand blood, breath or dna samples. They are given powerful and potentially lethal tools to do their job, including firearms and Tasers. That makes it imperative that the public is able to trust all of them to exercise the highest standards of judgment.

No one is pretending that the police have anything but the toughest of jobs, dealing with the worst of society and the worst of situations, or that most do the job to the highest of standards. However, there cannot be any tradeoff between quality and quantity.

For her part, Police Minister Annette King seems to regard the issue as one she need not concern herself with, as she is willing to accept the police management’s assurances that police college graduates are up to scratch.

That is not what the minister should be doing. She needs to be taking a more active role. Rebuilding public trust in the police demands nothing less.