Transcript
FLORENCE SYME BUCHANAN: According to sources they are leaving because they are dissatisfied with the pay, which is extremely low - police are amongst the lowest paid in the public service - dissatisfaction with working conditions, and as I have been told there is also dissatisfaction with the leadership of the current Commissioner of Police.
DON WISEMAN: Well the Commissioner himself he is not saying that. He says they had a variety of reasons for leaving, including education, retirement and so on - he doesn't seem very perturbed by it at all.
FSB: According to sources six police officers, the number who have resigned just recently, were very upset with their pay and conditions and how the police force is managed by the Commissioner. They went to see the Prime Minister to express their grievances. The Prime Minister is not the Minister of Police - that is the Deputy Prime Minister Teariki Heather, but I understand that the Minister of Police was unavailable at the time because of a death in the family.
DW: They leave - there's a lot of recruitment that goes on, on a regular basis but they are experienced police aren't they and you say six have left recently, but going back over the past six months it is a whole lot more than that, isn't it?
FSB: Indeed. My understanding is that since October last year 16 police officers have left the police force and that is a big blow to the force. According to sources, and these are sources within the national headquaters, the morale among the officers is very low.
DW: Ma'ara Tetava has been the Commissioner for a fairly long time now. He seems to have got along well for a fair while.
FSM: Well yes and he just had his term, which is three years, renewed earlier this year, and there was no public release on this and the public were not advised that his contract had been renewed, which the minister can choose to do, and not advertise the position again. So Mr Tetava will be into his seventh year as Commissioner of Police.
DW: You say they are badly paid - just how badly?
FSB: Well a new recruit enters the police force on a salary of $NZ12,000 and after he graduates to becoming a constable then he is paid $14,000 a year. It's one of the lowest salaries in the public service and it is not surprising that police officers are dissatisfied with this because you have senior police officers who have been in the force for almost a decade and they are not even being paid $20,000. I know of one who made sergeant and he was still only being paid $18,000 and had been in the force for almost ten years, and he had been moonlighting as a barman to make ends meet to support his family, and he just couldn't do that anymore and he has left the island with his children and partner.
DW: There has been an escalation of crime on Rarotonga hasn't there? Is there any relationship with this dissatisfaction in the force and the apparent escalation in crime?
FSB: I would be loath to make any comparison or say that one is related to the other in this respect, but there is no minimum education requirement for new recruits, so someone with very little high school education can join the police force. It's not like in New Zealand where there are minimum education requirements - Level 3 and so on and so forth. There is no such thing here. And in New Zealand it is six months of training, intensive training, before you become a trainee constable, and here it is six weeks and then you are in uniform and out on the field. So you have got very inexperienced, young police officers and new recruits who are out there and trying to do the job, as best as they can.
