5 new police for South Island districts

Five of the 75 police recruits graduating from the Police College today will be posted to Police Stations in South Island districts, from Nelson to Invercargill.

Police Minister George Hawkins said the new recruits would make an immediate contribution to policing efforts over the Christmas/New Year holiday period.

"This training wing means the Government has now added 345 new probationary constables to the sworn Police strength during the last twelve months.

"In pursuit of efforts to ensure Police officers are brought into the force with the maturity to handle the job the average age of the recruits is 30 – the oldest recruit being 48 years old.

"Members of the Brigadier Tim Brewer Wing come from a wide range of previous employment backgrounds including accountancy, teaching, building, hairdressing, the military, full-time parenting and non-sworn Police service. 20 percent of the new recruits are women.

The graduates now begin a two-year period of on the job training before becoming fully-fledged Constables with the opportunity to work in range of specialist police careers.

Constable Nicola Kett (to be posted to Invercargill) shared the Minister's Prize for First in Wing with Constable Michael Simmons (to be posted to Henderson). Constable Kett also won the International Police Association Prize for overall achievement in academic exams and the Ericsson Practical Prize for achievement in practical assessments, file preparation and fingerprinting.

Constable Adrian Cupit received the Patron's Prize for Third in the Wing. He is to be posted to Nelson.

Constable Daniel Andrew (to be posted to Queenstown) won the Driver Training Award.

The patron of the wing was Brigadier Tim Brewer who was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2003 for his services to the NZ Army Territorial Forces. In his private life Brigadier Brewer is a litigation lawyer in New Plymouth. He has also been a Law Commissioner (1997-2001).

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