Careers in the New Zealand Police
The New Zealand Police (Nga Pirihimana O Aotearoa) operates to prevent crime and harm on New Zealand soil. It works with communities to ensure everyone is safe and feels safe too.
The New Zealand Police performs a number of key functions: keeping the peace, maintaining public safety, law enforcement, crime prevention, community support and reassurance, national security, and emergency management, as well as participation in policing activities outside New Zealand where appropriate.
Types of New Zealand Police Jobs
New Zealand Police describes four career areas for officers.
- Frontline Response, including General Duties Constable, Road Policing and Sergeant roles
- Prevention & Community
- Investigation & Leadership
- Specialist Squads
How to Get a Job in the New Zealand Police
To secure a role with the New Zealand Police, you'll need to show that you have the skills and competencies the role needs.
The recruitment team also wants to see that you will live the New Zealand Police values and work to win the trust and confidence of the communities you'll serve.
You'll need to display your alignment with the force's six core values throughout the hiring process: Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Commitment to Māori and the Treaty, Empathy, and Valuing Diversity.
New Zealand Police Application Process
To join the New Zealand Police, you'll need to impress at each stage of a competitive recruitment process designed to ensure the strongest candidates are selected. It includes an online application, initial background checks, online psychometric testing, a phone conversation, an initial medical check, a Physical Appraisal Test, SCOPE shifts alongside serving officers, a formal interview and final checks.
The process has many stages, so it helps to know what each one involves and to prepare for it.
New Zealand Police Online Application
The first step in the hiring process is to submit an online application for your desired location. The NewCops section of the website details which districts are currently accepting applications, and is updated as recruitment cycles open.
To begin your application you'll need to create an online account. The application form will ask you to provide your contact information, your personal details (including passport, drivers licence and immigration status), and your residence history (including any time spent abroad).
You'll also be asked a few questions designed to measure your integrity. It is important that all the information you give is correct, as it will be confirmed through an initial background check.
New Zealand Police Initial Background Checks
The information provided in your application will be used to conduct a background check on you and, if you have one, your partner or spouse.
Your record will be checked for any offences or convictions. Whether these affect your eligibility depends on factors such as the type of offence, your age at the time, how recent it was and the extent of your history.
There will also be a credit check, an immigration check, fingerprint clearance, and background checks on your family and friends. Reference checks come later, at the final checks stage.
If relevant, you may also require overseas police clearance, military clearance from the NZ Defence Force and/or a Ministry of Social Development benefit check.
New Zealand Police Online Aptitude Tests
After your initial background checks, you complete psychometric testing online within a five-day window. Everyone takes an ability assessment and a personality profile. Some applicants also sit an extra literacy assessment. If you fail the ability assessment, you must wait at least six months to resit, and a second fail ends your application.
The ability assessment provides an insight into whether you have the intellectual skills needed to successfully carry out police work. The assessment is timed and must be completed in 30 minutes. During this time, you'll have to answer 60 multiple-choice questions.
The assessment will feature the following types of questions (though note that there are no specific sections within the test, so questions will appear in a random, mixed order).
Verbal Reasoning Questions
Verbal reasoning questions assess your skills of interpretation, analysis, and deduction. New Zealand Police does not publish the format of its verbal questions. In general verbal reasoning practice, you read a short passage and judge whether statements about it are true, false or cannot be determined from the text.
Numerical Reasoning Questions
A numerical reasoning test provides insight into your ability to interpret data and handle numbers. New Zealand Police does not publish the content of its numerical questions. General numerical reasoning practice covers skills such as percentages, ratios, fractions and reading data from tables and charts.
Abstract Reasoning Questions
Abstract reasoning questions test how well you spot patterns in shapes and symbols. In general practice tests you usually choose the missing figure, or the next one in a sequence, from several options, and patterns often involve rotation, reflection or changes in size and position.
New Zealand Police Personality Test
A personality test helps to give a fuller impression of your suitability to join the New Zealand Police. It will explore your attitude, strengths, weaknesses, motivations, collaborative skills, and behavioural traits.
The test features 100 multiple-choice questions. Unlike the ability assessment, it is not timed. It should, however, take you approximately 15 minutes to complete.
Answer quickly and honestly, describing how you are now rather than how you think you will be as a police officer.
There are no right or wrong answers, so there is nothing to gain by guessing what recruiters want to see.
New Zealand Police Initial Phone Conversation
After your online testing, you'll be contacted to arrange a phone call. This is an initial chat so the recruiters can find out a bit more about you. It takes about 20 minutes and happens during business hours.
The call is also a chance to ask questions about the recruitment process, so read up on each stage beforehand.
You'll be asked for your most recent 1.5 mile (2.4km) run time to see whether you meet, or are close to meeting, the physical fitness requirements.
New Zealand Police Initial Medical Check
At this stage, you'll be emailed a health questionnaire to complete online to assess whether you meet the medical suitability requirements.
It will take around 3 weeks for the medical team to analyse this, and you may then be asked to complete additional tests such as an asthma questionnaire, a vision test, or a full medical assessment.
Your CV
You upload your CV earlier in the process, with the Initial Background Check 2 form. Make sure it is up to date and sets out your education, qualifications and previous jobs, with the most recent first.
Recruiters also take into account what you do outside paid work and study, such as volunteering, coaching sport or helping a community group, so include an overview of this.
It is worth showing how your skills and experience relate to the role of a police officer, and how they reflect the New Zealand Police core values.
New Zealand Police Physical Appraisal Test (PAT)
After the initial medical check comes the Physical Appraisal Test (PAT). You'll take a PAT during the recruitment process, and a final PAT before you start training to check you still meet the standard.
New Zealand Police advises starting training early so you don't delay your application, and publishes an Applicant Fitness Training Pack to help.
The PAT involves assessing your fitness across four elements: a 2.4km run, press-ups, a vertical jump and grip strength. Points are allocated based on performance. You need at least 11 points in total, including at least 2 points for the run, at least 2 for press-ups, and at least 1 each for the vertical jump and grip strength.
Later, during your training, you'll need to pass a Physical Competency Test (PCT).
SCOPE
This stage of the process gives you the opportunity to experience what working as a police officer is actually like. You'll complete up to three ten-hour shifts alongside a serving officer, and recruitment may ask you to do more.
SCOPE stands for the different elements you will experience first-hand: the Surroundings, Conditions, Organisation, People (and Prospects), and Effects.
During these shifts, you'll be observed for the competencies and values that are required to join the force. You'll also complete a workbook to detail your experiences and reflections.
New Zealand Police Formal Interview
Once you've completed your SCOPE shifts, you'll attend a formal interview with a selection specialist.
You'll need to be able to evidence that you possess the key skills needed to be a police officer, by giving specific examples from your work experience or everyday life. For example, you'll need to prove that you can work well with others, problem-solve, complete tasks to high standards, and communicate well.
New Zealand Police recommends the STAR format (describing the situation, task, action, and result) to provide detailed, clear, and concise answers.
It is also important that you can demonstrate that you possess the core values of the New Zealand Police.
New Zealand Police Final Background Checks
The final round of checks involves reference checks. Police will contact three referees, such as past or present employers or club officials, who can speak to your suitability for a Police career.
There will then be a final review to ensure all the relevant checks have been completed.
Entry into the New Zealand Police Candidate Pool
If you've met all the selection requirements and impressed in the interview, you'll be added to the candidate pool.
You'll be considered for upcoming intakes into Police College (known as 'wings') depending upon the need for new recruits in your chosen district and your individual strengths. There are several wings each year.
Selection for Wing
Wing planning starts three to four months before the start date, and you receive a formal offer letter about five weeks before it begins.
You'll be asked to attend a final PAT to ensure you still meet the fitness requirements and undergo a final medical check.
Training, Graduation, and Beginning Your Role
You'll complete 20 weeks of training as a recruit, then graduate as a constable ready to start your policing career.
Tips To Get Hired At New Zealand Police
The recruitment process can be daunting. These tips may help you prepare.
1. Review Your Experience
Before you complete your application form and attend your interviews, look back at your experience to date and think about specific examples that illustrate the necessary competencies for working as a police officer.
Identify your key skills and achievements, and be ready to provide evidence to display each of them.
Also take some time to think about your preferred style of working, as well as your strengths and weaknesses, to display your personal awareness.
2. Meet The Physical Requirements
Police officers are required to meet high health and fitness standards, which are assessed through medical checks and physical appraisal tests (PATs).
The recruitment process involves two of these physical assessments: a PAT after your initial medical check, and a final one before you begin training with your wing.
Start your fitness training before you apply and keep it up throughout the process. Build the PAT elements (running, press-ups, vertical jumps and grip strength) into your regular exercise to give yourself the best chance of meeting the standard.
3. Practice Tests
Psychometric aptitude and ability tests differ in format, structure and content to tests you may have previously encountered. Practice tests are a good way to prepare for the verbal, numerical and abstract reasoning questions in the ability assessment.
As the ability assessment is timed, practise working steadily through the questions and time your progress. Once you've completed a test, review your answers and seek to actively learn from the paper so you can tailor your preparation time to focus on improving your weaknesses and honing your strengths.
The more practice tests you sit, the more familiar you'll be with what the tests entail and the more confident you'll feel to sit the official police tests.
