SSC report into Police culture shows big improvement on 2010

SSC report into Police culture shows big improvement on 2010

The 2011/12 report following the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct shows a marked improvement on the 2010 report, Police HR General Manager Alan Cassidy says.

"The unflattering comments about Police DNA and culture of two years ago have been superseded, with the report now saying the record of performance and the culture of Police are something of which New Zealanders can be proud," Mr Cassidy says.

The report, which is the fourth prepared for the State Services Commission by PricewaterhouseCoopers, paints a picture of an “impartial, corruption free, independent and high-performing" police service.

Mr Cassidy says Police have worked hard over the past 12 months to increase staff engagement, address performance management and other HR issues and implement our Policing Excellence and Prevention First change strategies.

"The results reflect this effort,” he says.

The 2011/12 report is different in approach to previous years. It builds on the findings of the earlier reviews and focuses on the ‘vital few’ areas critical to driving improvements in culture and behaviours.

These are leadership and change; HR strategy and capability to support integrated change; performance management; and lifting trust and confidence in complaint investigations.

Police results compare favourably or are not too far adrift from the benchmarks available for the wider public sector. Police staff, for example, are more confident than the rest of the public service that poor performance will be dealt with. Increasing the representation of women at senior levels of the organisation though, remains a challenge.

The information and data provided this year will serve as the baseline measures for future reviews and to assess performance against six key targets set for Police to reach by 2017.

"These are well above the average set for the wider public sector and they will be a stretch,” Mr Cassidy says.

“However the 2012 Workplace Survey shows we’ve made such great progress that we are confident with focus, effort and strong leadership at all levels, we can reach them.”

Mr Cassidy says while police are very pleased with the progress identified in the 2011/12 findings, there is still a way to travel.

One of the areas Police still need to work on is the representation of women at a senior level.

"We have a realistic target of at least 10 percent women commissioned officers by 2017 - an increase of about 2 percent."

He says Police are making steady progress towards this. Over a 10 year period, from 2001, only 2.9 percent of senior sergeants were women. In 2011, this figure increased to 9.9 percent.

Mr Cassidy says Police are recruiting more women.

"If we recruit more women constables, we'll then have a bigger pool of women officers to draw from, creating a sustainable solution, therefore reaching this target."

He says Police are committed to long term change and will be doing everything possible to reach the targets.

"The transparency and accountability the Commission of Inquiry reporting process provides is a very helpful tool for measuring our progress,” he says.

The report can be found here.

ENDS

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