KEY POINTS:
Police officers coming to New Zealand from Singapore are likely to be retiring officers seeking a second career, says a Singapore police spokesman.
The police plan to recruit officers from Singapore, and an agreement has been reached in principle between the police commissioners of both countries.
The spokesman said the Singapore police were seeking suitable employers for retiring officers who wanted to "transit into a second career, enriched with experiences acquired in their career in the Singapore Police Force".
He said most officers retired at 45, and preparations for their second career started between four and five years before the retirement.
Inspector John Mitchell, police development manager for Auckland, said on Wednesday he understood Singapore's position but said that it would be better if New Zealand could get younger officers. But he also believed retiring officers would bring with them a wealth of experience.
"I don't believe a person in his forties is old," he said. "There are no age limits in the recruiting of police here and this applies to those from Singapore as well."
Meanwhile, National Party police spokesman Chester Borrows is questioning the Singapore plan, citing problems with British recruits. He said 78 of the 363 serving officers recruited from Britain since 2003 had left the police.
"That's a big rate of attrition, and must place a question mark around the value of the latest move to recruit officers from Singapore," he said.
"I have no doubt that overseas recruits bring a wealth of experience to the job, but it must be obvious by now that recruiting police from overseas isn't the sustainable solution the Government thought it would be."
Police human resources general manager Wayne Annan said that recruiting a group of up to 20 Singaporean officers would boost understanding of Asian culture among staff, and had nothing to do with meeting recruitment targets.
"The purpose of it is for New Zealand police to be able to learn about Asian cultures."
Mr Annan said no concrete measures had yet been taken to recruit Singaporean officers, most of whom would be ethnic Chinese.
