In the stunning surroundings of a magnificent whare whakairo, 20 Auckland recruits were welcomed to the Police family.
The recruits last week began their initial training in Auckland as members of Section Five of Recruit Wing 314.
They are the first recruits in more than 40 years to do their initial training away from the Royal New Zealand Police College (RNZPC) at Porirua, and the first non-residential course.
Their trainers are RNZPC staff and the recruits are receiving the same training that they would at the RNZPC.
The pōwhiri was held at the whare whakairo (carved house) Ngākau Māhaki, which is part of Te Noho Kotahitanga Marae at Unitec’s Mt Albert campus, where the classroom element of the training will be based.
The Auckland training programme is a pilot which aims to address the recruitment needs of our biggest and busiest city.
It is designed to capture potential recruits who could not to commit to spending 16 weeks away from home at the RNZPC. The Auckland training is 19 weeks to allow for the fact that they will not be living on site.
The six weeks of classroom training will be followed by a five-week block of firearms, driving and defensive tactics training, then eight weeks’ field training based at the North Shore Policing Centre.
The recruits share their Wing Patron – Sir Noel Robinson – with the RNZPC-based members of Wing 314, who started training in February. The Auckland section graduates in Auckland in September.
You can follow the progress of some of the recruits through the Auckland City District and NZ Police Recruitment Facebook pages.