Graduating cops honour slain police officer Matthew Hunt

The 38 cops graduating today will honour slain police officer Constable Matthew Hunt by wearing huia pins.

Graduates include a former Shortland Street actress and a grandfather who has decided to shake up his career after working for 30 years in communications and IT.

The pin is a stylised huia tail feather with the police chevron, which symbolises the loss of someone special to police.

Police Minister Stuart Nash said Hunt's death on duty on Friday weighed heavily on today's graduation.

"In March 2018 I attended Matt's graduation. The officers in today's wing have all the passion and enthusiasm for their new career that the constables of recruit wing 312 displayed more than two years ago.

"The best tribute today's new constables can pay to Constable Hunt is to live their careers with the same passion he had. Together we marked a minute's silence in honour of Matt."

Police Minister Stuart Nash congratulates Constable Kirsten Craig of Palmerston North, who graduated top of Wing 338 today. Photo / Supplied.

Yesterday, Parliament also paid tribute to Hunt. National police spokesman Mark Mitchell, who knows his family, shared messages from others who knew him.

Hunt's mother, Diane, said everyone knew her son to be a "selfless man of huge integrity" and gave her words to Mitchell to read in Parliament.

"He loved serving the community and protecting his fellow New Zealanders.

"My heart is crying out that this was so unnecessary and tragic. My beautiful boy, 28 years young, will never have another birthday."

Hunt graduated from AUT University with a degree in criminology and joined the police force in 2017 after working as a case manager at Corrections, where he helped guide people through the justice sector.

One of those graduating today is Tabitha Avery, who joins the police after an eight-year stint as an actress on Shortland Street.

She has also been a pro-wrestler for 20 years.

"I love super heroes. To me they represent helping people and giving people hope, and to me this is what police is about."

Avery considered joining the police when she was sent to audition for a New Cops commercial and one of the questions on the script was "could you do it?".

Avery decided she could.

A graduation ceremony was held this afternoon at the Royal New Zealand Police College in Porirua where Nash was joined by Police Commissioner Andrew Coster.

Nash said those graduating represented a cross-section of the communities they will serve.

More than a third of the new officers are female, 13 per cent are Maori, the youngest is 20 and the eldest is 55.

A quarter of the wing has a degree, and several others have a trade or higher learning qualifications.

Graduate Gareth Williams, who is a grandfather, is switching up his career after working 30 years for IT and communications companies.

He has also been a Coastguard volunteer, which is when he started to think about joining the police.

"The seed of community service was planted, but it was when my eldest daughter - an authorised officer who wants to become a police officer - took me to a recruitment evening that becoming a police officer seemed to be the perfect fit."

The top student in the wing is Kirsten Craig, whose father, retired police officer Chris Craig, was her inspiration to join police.

"I have tremendous respect for my father and his 25 years of police service. As a child, I wanted to be just like him - his commitment to the safety and development of our community is second to none."