28 women have joined the part time rural police force in Bougainville in a drive to make the police more accessible to women in the communities.
The New Zealand police is heading the project to recruit and retain female community auxiliary police, or CAP, officers.
The New Zealand police on Bougainville team leader, Inspector, Murray Lewis, says women need access to female officers.
"The thing on Bougainville is that the ladies are very reluctant to talk to male police officer about any issue at all, really, so we set about recruiting females, in particular for the CAPs and we want to reach 20 percent, which is the mark that will see women in very part of Bougainville having access to a female police officer."
Murray Lewis says the number of part-time female rural police officers stood at only four percent in April last year.
