Jill Rogers: Assistant Commissioner on the police allowing people with restricted licences apply to become officers

The police have made some new changes to their recruitment eligibility criteria.

Prospective applicants on their restricted drivers' license will be able to apply to become police officers under these new changes, in a bid to reduce recruitment numbers. 

However, Assistant Commissioner Jill Rogers says successful applicants will need to obtain a full licence before they begin their training.

"For our candidates, we've known that this has been one of the barriers to their recruitment journeys with us - hence, we've made the decision to take the eligibility criteria back to what it was in 2017." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The New Zealand Police have announced a change to their
eligibility criteria. They are now allowing people on restricted driver's
licenses to apply to become police officers. The change is
hoping to increase the potential pool of new recruits by thousands,
with apparently a quarter of a million people two hundred
and fifty thousand currently sitting on a restricted license. Jill
Rodgers is the Assistant Commissioner with Police and is with

(00:22):
us now, good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hi.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Isn't having your full driver's license just one of the
most basic requirements?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, you would think, so that's for our candidates. We've
known that this has been one of the barriers to
the recruitment journeys with us, and so hence we've made
the decision to take the eligibility criteria back to what
it was in twenty seventeen, actually so that we can
have people start the process, so we can start that
recruitment journey for them while they were to get that

(00:52):
full license.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
But if someone can't show the initiative to get a
full license on their own, how do we know that
they have the capacity to be a good police officer.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
It there's a number of different reasons as to why
people don't progress their licenses. One sometimes as age. Sometimes
it might be fiscal challenges and things. So we're working
with partners and things that if support's needed, we can
help people get their full driver's license. Otherwise it allows
us as if you're to start that process while a candidate,

(01:25):
some work themselves through getting from their restricted into full
driver's license.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
So to be clear, will someone be able to be
sworn in as a police officer without their full driver's license?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
No, No, they will still have to go through the
whole twelve step process. So no, they can't join without
a full New Zealand driver's license.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
How many people do you reckon have been turned down
in the past because they only had their restricted.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
We understand it's a decent amount. So we've been looking
closely at our recruitment pipeline for quite some time now
and this was the biggest barrier that we had that
we were able to do some research around people that
had landed on our pages and websites and things as
to why their interest hadn't translated into an application, and

(02:10):
we know that's not having a full driver's license was
the number one barrier.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I just I don't know, it just seems it seems
crazy to me that that is a barrier, and yet
we're going to make someone who couldn't overcome that barrier
have the power to rast people.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
There's a whole range of reasons that people no longer
may see that their driver's license was their priority. But
the excitest thing with this is it allows us to
start that process and so if we think they're an
excellent candidate and they're going to have the skills that
we need, then we can process that application. Obviously, that
doesn't mean that they're all going to get through. It
still will require us to take a good look as

(02:50):
we always do to maintain and standards. So it's not
a changing standards. It's still the really high standards that
we expect the candidates to come through before they get
onto a recruit wing.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
If it wasn't so tricky to recruit officers right now,
would we be making these changes.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
We know that delivering the eighteen hundred last year did
make a big dent in the pipeline that we had,
so we've had to make some, you know, to have
a look at the process, to have a lot how
we can better support candidates through to make sure that
we're getting the absolute best of those that put their
names in.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
And from the recruit pathways that you have in place.
Are you on track to hit the five hundred new officers?

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Do you think working really hard to deliver that that
you're on track? So we've seen applications up considerably this year.
So since the beginning of January, we've had a forty
percent increase in applications. Yeah, so on the new cop
site and that's where you can start your application process.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Thanks for your time. That is the New Zealand Police
Assistant Commissioner Jill Rogers. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,
listen live to News Talks a B from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.