Zealand Police Research Articles

Daily Organisational Hassles and Uplifts as Determinants of Psychological and Physical Health in a Sample of New Zealand Police

This study investigated the role of minor daily events (organisational hassles and uplifts) as determinants of psychological distress and self-rated health in a sample of 326 New Zealand police officers. Hassles were associated with negative outcomes, and uplifts with positive health outcomes. Tests of relationships between hassles, uplifts and health showed that hassles were not positively correlated with uplifts and that the hassles and health relationship was not moderated by uplifts, however, the prediction that more hassles than uplifts would negatively affect health was supported. These results suggest that both decreasing hassles and increasing uplifts are promising approaches to organisational improvement of health. Some suggestions for the improvement of the police specific measure of hassles and uplifts are made for future exploration of the relationships between positive and negative experiences at work in regard to stress.

New Zealand's Breath and Blood Alcohol Testing Programs: Further data analysis and forensic implications

Paired blood and breath alcohol concentrations (BAC, in g/dL, and BrAC, in g/210 L), were determined for 11,837 drivers apprehended by the New Zealand Police. For each driver, duplicate BAC measurements were made using headspace gas chromatography and duplicate BrAC measurements were made with either Intoxilyzer 5000, Seres 679T or Seres 679ENZ Ethylometre infrared analysers. The variability of differences between duplicate results is described in detail, as well as the variability of differences between the paired BrAC and BAC results. The mean delay between breath and blood sampling was 0.73 h, ranging from 0.17 to 3.18 h. BAC values at the time of breath testing were estimated by adjusting BAC results using an assumed blood alcohol clearance rate. The paired BrAC and time-adjusted BAC results were analysed with the aim of estimating the proportion of false-positive BrAC results, using the time-adjusted BAC results as references. When BAC results were not time-adjusted, the false-positive rate (BrAC > BAC) was 31.3% but after time-adjustment using 0.019 g/dL/h as the blood alcohol clearance rate, the false-positive rate was only 2.8%. However, harmful false-positives (defined as cases where BrAC > 0.1 g/210 L, while BAC ≤ 0.1g/dL) occurred at a rate of only 0.14%. When the lower of duplicate breath test results were used as the evidential results instead of the means, the harmful false-positive rate dropped to 0.04%.

The police turnover problem: fact or fiction?

PurposeThe aim of the present study is to examine, in detail, the magnitude and profile of police turnover across Australasia.Design/methodology/approachSworn officer turnover statistics (total separations and voluntary resignations) for four financial years were collected from all Australian and New Zealand police jurisdictions. Comparisons were made with the Australian and international public sector. The age and years of service of resigning officers were also obtained.FindingsDespite concerns about the high level of turnover, benchmarking data showed that total police turnover was lower than in other Australian public sector organizations and comparable with that in international public sector organizations. Voluntary resignations were also lower in policing than in the Australian public sector, but higher than in the international public sector. Further, resignations were the major form of turnover, and female officers resigned at a higher rate than male officers with a peak in the 25‐39‐year age bracket.Practical implicationsAlthough, over the last few years, turnover within Australasian police organizations has been low, the high proportion of resignations suggests that it is possible to achieve further reductions. This finding has an important implication for police agencies currently experiencing difficulty in maintaining sufficient numbers; namely, that the overall turnover rate in police organizations should be responsive to organizational initiatives. Police jurisdictions should therefore endeavor to investigate the causes of voluntary resignation to inform strategies to minimize avoidable turnover.Originality/valueIn addition to highlighting a variety of issues relevant to the consideration of turnover within policing, the present study obtained objective and reliable data to challenge the alleged problem of high turnover within Australasian policing. The benchmarking conducted here offers a detailed insight into the nature and extent of voluntary turnover within Australasian police organizations, and provides clear directions for future work in this area.

Health professionals and the monitoring of Taser use

Although electromuscular incapacitation devices (Tasers or ‘stun guns') have been in use for over a decade, concern about potential health effects has not been resolved. Moreover, public policy decisions have expanded the availability of Tasers and require wide consultation with the health sector as well as other stakeholders. In the past 5 years sales of Tasers have grown considerably, with numbers of US law enforcement agencies using the devices growing from 1700 in 2001 to 8700 in 2005 (US Department of Justice, personal communication). Jenkinson et al (2006) recently argued, as have the UK Police Federation, that Tasers should be issued to all front line British police, a move that would see a considerable proliferation of Tasers in the UK. A current trial in four districts may pave the way for Tasers to be used nationwide in New Zealand (New Zealand Police, 2006). These developments make it imperative that health professionals monitor the physical and mental health implications of Tasers, and ensure health considerations are part of the public policy debate on their deployment. In this paper we review the existing literature on the use of Tasers, and note that the psychological effects of Taser use have not been investigated.

Policing, Politics, and Civil Rights: Analysis of the Policing of Protest against the 1999 Chinese President’s Visit to New Zealand

In September 1999, New Zealand Police on occasions shielded Chinese President Jiang from pro‐Tibetan protesters. This paper argues that police, conscious of government intent for an incident‐free visit, were more concerned with protecting the Head of State’s sensitivities than accommodating the civil rights of protesters. At vital stages, police reneged on negotiations with protest organisers, which created a sense of loss of civil liberties for the protesters. Failures during the visit tarnished the New Zealand Police’s image, but significantly, both parliament and police have reassessed appropriate strategies to balance fundamental rights and the protection of visiting dignitaries. The case study affirms various public order lessons, including the importance of negotiation and maintaining agreements and the protection of civil rights.

Reducing alcohol-related violence and improving community safety: the Alcohol Linking Program

Harm associated with the consumption of alcohol on licensed premises is an issue of increasing community concern. This paper reports on a decade-long research initiative that involved the development and implementation of police systems designed to enhance identification of, and police capacity to respond to, premises suggested to be associated with such harms. The outcomes of the Alcohol Linking Program demonstrate enhanced information regarding the occurrence and characteristics of alcohol-related incidents; there are more than 34,000 such incidents each year in rural and regional NSW. Evaluation of the impact of an educational intervention demonstrated reductions of about 15% in the number of alcohol-related incidents linked with such premises. The Program has subsequently been adopted into routine practice on a system-wide basis by the NSW Police and New Zealand Police. Opportunities exist for public health practitioners to contribute to reducing alcohol-related harm in the community through the development of equivalent surveillance systems in emergency departments, monitoring licencee compliance with the Liquor Act, and through injury prevention, health promotion and drug and alcohol practitioners enhancing the capacity of licencees to serve alcohol responsibly.

A Large‐Scale Study of the Relationship Between Blood and Breath Alcohol Concentrations in New Zealand Drinking Drivers*

Blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) and corresponding breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC) were determined for 21,582 drivers apprehended by New Zealand police. BAC was measured using headspace gas chromatography, and BrAC was determined with Intoxilyzer 5000 or Seres Ethylometre infrared analysers. The delay (DEL) between breath testing and blood sampling ranged from 0.03 to 5.4 h. BAC/BrAC ratios were calculated before and after BAC values were corrected for DEL using 19 mg/dL/h as an estimate of the blood alcohol clearance rate. Calculations were performed for single and duplicate breath samples obtained using the Intoxilyzer (groups I-1 and I-2) and Seres devices (groups S-1 and S-2). Before correction for DEL, BAC/BrAC ratios for groups I-1, I-2, S-1, and S-2 were (mean+/-SD) 2320+/-260, 2180+/-242, 2330+/-276, and 2250+/-259, respectively. After BAC values were adjusted for DEL, BAC/BrAC ratios for these groups were (mean+/-SD) 2510+/-256, 2370+/-240, 2520+/-280, and 2440+/-260, respectively. Our results indicate that in New Zealand the mean BAC/BrAC ratio is 19-26% higher than the ratio of the respective legal limits (2000).

Policing in New Zealand:

PurposeThis paper seeks to critique the Winfree and Taylor report on rural, small town, and metropolitan police in New Zealand.Design/methodology/approachCompares and contrasts the conclusions to some earlier findings of Jaeger in her research on increasing the diversity of the New Zealand police. The question asked is: “Can universal research methodology on classical policing and community policing be applied carte blanche to organizational studies in New Zealand without ‘local’ input?”.FindingsJaeger's research, through in‐depth interviews of twenty ethnic police officers, suggested possible alternative conclusions that were not apparent when Winfree and Taylor, reporting from a distance, applied detailed statistical analysis to a 1996 dataset. The paper suggests that a combination of the two approaches might lead to a more complete and truthful representation of the reality.Originality/valueCritiques an earlier report on the police in New Zealand published in Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management.

The Effectiveness of Police Intelligence Management: A New Zealand Case Study

Intelligence‐driven policing strategies are coming to the fore in many countries around the world. This is evidenced by the espousal of the term in the mission statements of police services in Australia and New Zealand, the recent adoption of the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan by the US government, and most notably by the legal commitment to the National Intelligence Model in the UK through the Police Reform Act of 2002. This paper considers intelligence‐driven crime reduction as a three‐stage process, requiring that: law enforcement interpret the criminal environment, influence decision‐makers, and finally that decision‐makers impact on the criminal environment. This 3i model (interpret, influence, impact) is used as the framework for an evaluation of the intelligence process in three New Zealand police districts. The results of interviews with 50 decision‐makers and intelligence staff suggest that there are difficulties identifying a clear decision‐making structure and that there is perceived to be a lack of understanding of intelligence‐led policing at the leadership levels of the organization. Furthermore, issues with training, and data quality and availability hamper the ability of intelligence analysts to contribute to the crime reduction effort. This lack of clarity in intelligence use and application may have a negative effect on the ability of the organization to positively impact on the criminal environment.

Ethnic Diversity in the New Zealand Police: Staff Perspectives

Over seas research suggests benefits in having staff from ethnic minorities for po licing multicultural communities. This study ‐ part of a larger study investigating recruitment barriers and retention issues of ethnic minorities in the New Zealand Police ‐ presents the views of personnel from minority cultures about how they experience their professional roles within the organisation. The paper pre ents data from twenty in‐depth interviews conducted with police staff from one police region. Results of the study support overseas research and highlight New Zealand ‐ specific issues. While the sample size is small, the in‐depth interviews provide a rich data source. The paper presents new insights into how New Zealand Police officers from a range of cultural backgrounds perceive the contribution a culturally diverse workforce can make to policing. The study has practical implications for police recruitment and diversity policies.

Rural, small town, and metropolitan police in New Zealand

Explorations of the police work world in the USA typically involve non‐random, unrepresentative samples of widely dispersed law enforcement agencies. Questions about officer selection, training and performance standards make comparisons of agency‐based studies – especially among large city, small town, and rural law enforcers – difficult. In the present study, unique region‐specific comparisons (i.e. metropolitan vs small‐town vs rural duty stations) of the New Zealand Police (NZP) add to this body of knowledge for several reasons. First, the sample includes both sworn and non‐sworn personnel, a rarity in US policing studies. Second, the “police agency” under study is a unified, national policing organization. This fact minimizes the vagaries of recruitment, selection and training found in the USA. Third, the data represents a random stratified sample of all official personnel who provide a wide range of police‐related services in New Zealand, achieving a level of representativeness that is rare in police studies. Fourth, the shared common law tradition and more recent focus on community‐oriented policing provide a unique opportunity to examine topics relevant to both New Zealand and the USA. The policy and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

New Zealand Police and Restorative Justice Philosophy

In New Zealand, selected sworn police officers called youth aid officers participate in discussions and deliberations concerning the actions required to restore the sense of community balance upset by the actions of juvenile offenders. The author explores a representative sample of all sworn police officers serving in the New Zealand Police, including a subsample of youth aid officers, looking at the nature of support for the philosophical underpinnings of restorative justice and the likely impact of such work and values on officer attitudes toward the workplace. A 1996 management survey of all branches of the New Zealand national policing organization contained a number of specific questions that tap dimensions of both restorative justice philosophy and workplace orientations. This study represents a descriptive examination of these self-reported perspectives for all sworn officers, including breakdowns by selected personal-biographical variables. Implications for the implementation of restorative justice practices within a policing organization are discussed.

Money laundering and gambling: the New Zealand experience

Outlines relevant New Zealand legislation against money laundering, including the Crimes Act 1960, the Proceeds of Crime Act 1991, and the Financial Transactions Reporting Act 1996. Discusses a specific case of prosecution of a lawyer under the latter Act in 2002: this was “New Zealand Police v Samuel Devereux”, in which Devereux was convicted for failing to report suspicious transactions. Moves on to the obligations of casino owners to prevent their use for money laundering; gambling in New Zealand has grown rapidly, and there is no clear gambling policy. Outlines the provisions of the Responsible Gambling Bill 2003.

Organized Crime in Cannabis Cultivation in New Zealand: An Economic Analysis

This paper draws on the emerging economic theory of organized crime to investigate the role organized criminal gangs play in outdoor illicit cannabis cultivation in New Zealand. Organized criminal groups are most likely to control illicit markets where there are cost advantages from larger-scale production, the need for specialized skills, capital equipment or large amounts of startup capital, and visible targets for violence aimed at discouraging competition. Examination of the illicit production of cannabis suggests the productivity gains that could be achieved from larger-scale cannabis cultivation are undermined by the difficulties of monitoring crops, the vulnerability of crops to ground and aerial detection, and legal penalties based on size of crop. The effectiveness of violence in discouraging competition in cannabis cultivation is constrained by the difficulties of identifying rival cultivators and discovering the location of rivals’ cannabis plots. Several reasons are put forward to explain why the New Zealand police nevertheless claim that cannabis cultivation in New Zealand is controlled by gangs.

Policing and Gender: Male and Female Perspectives among Members of the New Zealand Police

This study examines possible gender differences among personnel of the New Zealand Police (NZP). Prior research suggests that male and female officers may have similar workplace perceptions. Therefore, two questions guide this study: (a) In terms of perceptions of the workplace, including job satisfaction, level of perceived support, and fairness of their supervisors, are female and male sworn officers in the NZP more like each other or their same-gender nonsworn cohort? (b) What are the effects of variables such as ethnicity, age, length of service, type of work assignment, work location, and orientations toward policing on the relationships between perceptions of the workplace, gender, and sworn status? The analyses suggest that although the men and women who provide policing services in New Zealand have many similar views on policing, their perspectives are due to some what different sets of forces. The policy implications of the findings are also addressed.

Discontinuous change in the New Zealand police service – A case study

In a country that has experienced over 15 years of politically driven change, the New Zealand Police Service (NZP) is now in the midst of an ambitious change programme called Policing 2000 (P2). Challenging traditional policing assumptions, P2 is a total quality management (TQM) approach that seeks alignment with an increasingly service orientated public by utilising state‐of‐the‐art technology and strategic management practices more akin to the private sector. Reports on an exploratory case study that investigated individual anticipatory reactions to organisational change. The findings provide insights into the factors necessary for the implementation of a discontinuous change programme; namely alignment of vision, culture and implementation.

Unspeakable Emotion

In contrast to traditional psychological theories that conceptualize emotions as discrete intrapsychic phenomena, the present study considers emotions as social constructions. A discursive analysis of interviews with 12 police officers was undertaken to develop a situated understanding of the construction and function of emotion in the culture of the New Zealand police. Two conflicting discourses of emotion were identified: a discourse of emotional disclosure in which discussion of emotions was constructed as a normal and healthy human activity and a discourse of unspeakability in which emotions were framed as dangerous and threatening to performance, demanding management and control. Both of these discourses were drawn on by the majority of respondents and were contextually contingent. We argue that strategic deployment of these discourses enables officers to present themselves as both culturally and professionally competent.

Community policing and the New Zealand Police

Police in New Zealand have a well established community‐policing tradition. The current research is based on a survey of 440 officers, or roughly 6 per cent of the New Zealand Police’s sworn personnel. We focused on the personal values, interpersonal relationships, and work situations of the officers as a way of understanding their respective levels of satisfaction with their jobs and assessment of their superiors. The goal was to determine the extent to which job satisfaction and perceptions of supervisory support varied within a national police force officially committed to community policing. The findings suggest that, even in a national police with an avowed community‐policing orientation, not all police officers perceived the work world in the same terms. We further address the policy implications of these findings.

Posttraumatic stress disorder in the new zealand police: The moderating role of social support following traumatic stress

It has been consistently demonstrated that social support affects psychological outcomes following the experience of trauma. Information processing theories of traumatic stress and empirical evidence suggest a model of social support and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) aetiology, in which emotional support and disclosure moderates the effects of trauma. This model was tested using survey data from 527 New Zealand Police officers. The results showed that all support variables had significant negative main effects on PTSD symptoms. Trauma was positively related to PTSD symptoms and this relationship was moderated by police officers' attitudes to expressing emotions at work and emotional support from peers. These results have implications for the provision of support for workers whose job places them at risk of experiencing multiple trauma.

Flexible Employment: A Worthwhile New Zealand Policing Option?

This paper describes the introduction and working of the New Zealand (NZ) Police Flexible Employment Policy, widely referred to as the Flexible Employment Option (FEO) and covers aspects of the policy, its history and its current workings, mainly from a woman's perspective. Results of a survey of personnel working reduced hours and female staff who resigned/disengaged after a period of maternity leave (1990–96) are also reported.