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The country's top police officer wants women in the force to help repair the damage of the events chronicled in the Bazley report into historical police conduct.
The report painted a bleak picture of sexual misconduct and called for greater recruitment of women and ethnic minorities to reflect modern New Zealand society.
Police Commissioner Howard Broad told a women police officer's conference yesterday that Dame Margaret Bazley's commission of inquiry was "a difficult, but necessary" critique of police.
"Each one of you can potentially help repair the damage, particularly to potential women recruits ... out there who may have been left feeling unsure about whether police is the place for them," Mr Broad said.
In charge of finding those recruits is national recruiting manager Inspector Dawn Bell.
Ms Bell said in "23 wonderful years" as a police officer she had not been subject to any of the issues outlined in the Bazley report.
"Police have been through a number of changes over the 23 years that I have been in it, and one of the thing that I think is very attractive to women these days is the fact that there are more women officers. The support that we get from each other is great but, as Commissioner Broad says, there still aren't enough of us."
Currently 16.5 per cent of sworn police officers are women, up from 14.8 per cent 10 years ago and 2.4 per cent 40 years ago.
Recruiting new police officers was difficult in a tight labour market, but so far there had been no noticeable drop-off in numbers which could be attributed to fallout from the Bazley report, Ms Bell said. She was also unaware of any officers becoming disillusioned and deciding to leave because of the report.
"At the end of the day, I think it is up to every police officer to show that the New Zealand public can have confidence in us to police New Zealand society the way it should be policed," Ms Bell said. "Repairing the damage, whose job is that? We are the police of the future, we need to make sure the public does have confidence in us, and I am reassured from what I know of my colleagues and the people that we are recruiting, that the public can have that confidence."
A spokesman for Police Minister Annette King said she would be watching with "very close interest" the progress police made in recruiting women officers. Ms King had met Mr Broad to discuss recruiting more women and ethnic minorities and moving such officers into more senior positions.
- additional reporting NZPA
