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Need for traction on Police culture changes

Need for traction on Police culture changes

Police acknowledge the need for traction around culture changes within the underlying context of a healthy organisation, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Viv Rickard, said today.

Mr Rickard was commenting on the release by Police of the third report prepared for the State Services Commission into change management in the wake of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct.

The report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers said NZ Police is virtually unique among policing jurisdictions in its comparative freedom from entrenched or systematic corruption. It also said that another sign of health in Police is the increasing maturity of strategic vision and the leadership and innovation that is occurring within the policing reform programme.

"Nevertheless, the SSC-PWC report's findings underline the need for fundamental change among police managers and staff at all levels to signal that poor performance and behaviour will not be tolerated.

Mr Rickard said Police had key initiatives underway to address such matters.

"We accept that ticking off the technical implementation of the recommendations of the COI has only taken us part of the way. We need to fully engage on a range of mechanisms to bring about change and improvement.

"These include: • overhauling our Employment Relations strategy. • further refinement of our appointments process • keeping the pace up on resolution of professional standards cases • and the development and implementation of action plans to respond to issues raised in staff engagement surveys.

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"Work associated in a wider management context includes: • Policing Excellence work intended to free up staff from time-consuming processes and paperwork so they can concentrate on working more with the public • full implementation of actions recommended by the Commissioner's task force on child abuse investigations • improved accessibility of firearms • and a strategic alignment review of Police National Headquarters.

Mr Rickard said that on the positive side of things Police had many good things going for it with several accolades being received in the course of the last year.

"A year 3 report by the research company Gravitas shows public trust and confidence in NZ Police is at record levels. Trust and confidence is running at 75%; 92% of people feel safe in their neighbourhood during the day, 70% after dark and 48% in town centres after dark.

"Management Magazine ranked NZ Police number one in terms of government department reputation in 2010. We've also received the Institute of Administration's award for innovation relating to our emergency services inter-agency communication system. Crime statistic indicators continue to trend in a healthy direction and the results of the NZ Crime and Safety Survey also reinforce the public's perceptions of positive Police performance.

"To quote the SSC-PWC report 'we should not lose sight of the fact that there is much to be proud of with respect to policing in New Zealand but we certainly aren't complacent and hear loud and clear the other messages contained in the SSC-PWC report," said Mr Rickard.

ENDS

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