Mark Mitchell: Police Minister on new police recruits

The Police Minister says our Police force is 'world-class' after concerns were revealed about officers' preparedness.

A survey of training officers released to the Herald found 55 percent feel new cops were barely or not at all well equipped with knowledge of arrest and charge procedures. 

Mark Mitchell says told Ryan Bridge this is about probationary constables, who receive two years of supervision on the job.

He says policing is a unique job, and it's unrealistic to expect rookies to come out being experienced officers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got trouble with new police recruits. A survey of
senior officers released of The Herald says graduates are barely
equipped to arrest or lay charges. Eighty three percent of
respondents reckon that they can't even handle the paperwork properly.
Mark Mitchell as Police Minister and joins me. Now Minister,
good morning, Heay, good morning Ryan. Are we pumping out
half baked cops?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
No? I don't think we're definitely not pumping out half
baked police officers. But it's always been the case that
they do. Obviously, they do their twenty weeks. Now I return,
I increase the courses from sixteen weeks to twenty weeks,
as Zenoy Minister, and then they have two years probationary
where they get to all be on the job supervision

(00:40):
and training that they need to become world class police officers.
And we have a world class police service has no
doubt about that. It's good that the police are always
testing themselves, that they're having honest conversation, that they're identifying
where there needs to be improvement. My expectation is where
they identify that, then they make the changes.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Is fifty five percent of the senior officers feeling that
the new bees were barely or not at all well
equipped with knowledge of the procedures for making an arrest
and laying charges world class.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, you're talking about probationary constables. You're talking about constables
that are coming out on the job. They see your
polessing is a very unique job where you have to test,
where you get tested, and a whole range of areas,
physically making decisions under pressure, all that sort of thing.
It's unrealistic to expect them to come out being experienced
police officers. They are rookies. They need strong supervision, they
need guidance when they come out on the street. They

(01:36):
are probationary constables for two years, so they're still being
tested for another two years once they graduated from the college.
But the good thing is that is that they're identified
so that our senior field trainers, who absolutely provide critical
feedback to the college are saying that there's some areas
that need will focus my expectations, the police will recognize

(01:57):
that and I'll make the changes. When I was in opposition,
I was highlighting this and continually with the previous government
not to drop standards to maintain standards as the income
and government. We had a big focus on that. Yes
we had a target set, but if I was solely
focused on the target, I wouldn't have increased the training
course from sixteen weeks to twenty weeks.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
But yeah, but you also ministered to increase the wing
size from eighty to one hundred. You do have a
target with New Zealand first week.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
No, it's not correct, that's not correct, right. The wing
sizes are not one hundred. Every wing size, winder size size,
it was like that. Well, some of them are seventy,
some of them are less, some of them are more.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
But so you didn't move to increase the wing size.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
We moved to increase the capacity of the college to
be able to train. To fund that, so you saw, yes,
of course we funded it, so massive funding.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
It's the problem here with the training or with the
candidates that are getting in, because we know there's been
problems there too.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, you know that.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
There's been a big focus on standards and quality of
training by this government. You know that we're not going
to compromise. We've been very clear and said we're not
going to compromise on the settings of targets. We want
to deliver five hundred diditional police.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
If there's a result of that, it's not a great outcome.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Is it.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
I mean, yes, we want more cops, but we want
more good cops.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Absolutely, And I just want to say again that come
along to a graduation meet. These police officers are some
of the best. Keywis that we've got to put themselves
forward for service and difficult to.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
The media senior officers saying this about them.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Then, because the police as an organization that tests itself hard,
they realize that they have to maintain the higher standards.
That's exactly what the field officers are doing. They're guiding them,
they're training them, but they're making sure they identify where
we could be doing better. And any organization should be
looking for continual improvement. The police is no different. In fact,

(03:53):
it's critically important for the police. Yes, as the incoming Mitister,
I recognized the fact that we needed to work on
standards on trading. That's why as the incoming Minister, I
supported moving our recruit training course from sixteen weeks to
twenty weeks. I increased that by four weeks. That wasn't
going to help us deliver our five hundred, but I

(04:13):
felt it was very important to do in terms of standards.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Mark Mental Police Minister.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 3 (04:20):
Listen live to news talks.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
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