Youth Aid

Passionate about helping vulnerable young people? Youth aid requires you to think laterally to get young people out of the justice system. You’ll work with kids, teens, parents, community organisations, and other agencies to help turn young lives around.

Criminal Investigations

As a Detective, you'll be trained to investigate and solve serious crime by targeting organised crime and those who keep on offending. Applicants who have a background in law are often drawn to this career path, but there are no prerequisites. Your cases may include homicides, aggravated violence, sexual offending, drug offences and fraud.

Search and Rescue

During your career you can apply for specialist positions such as the Police Negotiation Team or Search and Rescue (SAR). To get into 'on-call' roles like these you need to excel in your regular duties. SAR officers say there is no greater feeling than going into the bush to find a missing person.

Family Violence Team

Safer communities start with people being (and feeling) safer at home. Family Violence Teams work hard to prevent child abuse, cyber-bullying and intimate partner violence. You'll need to be savvy in the digital world, have great communication skills and a strong empathy for vulnerable people and victims.

Dive Squad

Dive Squad members have regular police duties in addition to their dive work and training. The squad spends most of its time on evidential searches. Sometimes these searches involve difficult underwater video work, which is later used as evidence. The squad has limited places and is filled from existing police officers. The work is often not much fun as it can involve locating bodies. However the team finds the job rewarding, especially when they locate someone's loved one.

Neighbourhood Policing Team

For this role you'll need awesome problem solving abilities and communication skills. Working alongside a small team of police officers, your job will be to stamp out the root causes of crime in a neighbourhood. These communities may have higher crime rates and entrenched social issues so you'll need to be innovative. You’ll work with other agencies, bars, schools, churches, sports groups, and businesses to support victims and get repeat offenders off the justice treadmill.

Air Observation Support

The Air Observation Support aka Eagle is NZ Police's eye in the sky in Auckland. From a helicopter, you'll track fleeing vehicles and offenders, and assist with special operations.

Iwi Liaison Officer

Becoming an Iwi Liaison Officer is a rewarding and satisfying way of serving Māori, your community and rangatahi. It's desirable if you know Te Reo and Tikanga Māori. These skills will be used to work with iwi and whanau on preventing crime, crashes and victimisation.

Ethnic Liaison Officer

New Zealand's communities are increasingly diverse. We are looking for people with skillsets that allow them to work with different cultures to ensure all communities remain safe and secure. This role leads to a huge variety of work stories. You'll do everything from attending cultural celebrations, through to educating migrants about NZ laws and helping international travellers who end up being victims of crime. To be effective in this role you need a strong understanding of another culture or language.

Financial Crime Unit

Almost all crime is financially motivated. Got a background in finance or accounting? This could be your calling. Using key pieces of legislation, your objective will be to disrupt, derail and deter crime. The financial crime unit collects information on suspicious financial transaction reports that come from banks and other financial institutions. The team also monitors large amounts of cash crossing our borders, and supports investigations into money laundering.

School Community Officers

As a School Community Officer you could help students to be safe, feel safe, and achieve their potential. The role works alongside staff, students, parents/whānau, and the wider community to prevent harm and build safe environments that support wellbeing and positive behaviour. If you have the ability to relate to young people or already have a career as a teacher this could be for you.

Road Policing

Child Protection Team

Everybody deserves to grow up without fear for their safety. By working in the Child Protection Team you help to give society’s most vulnerable people a voice. In this role, you will co-operate with other agencies to deliver the best care for kids who have suffered physical, psychological or sexual abuse. While at times the work is sobering, you go home with a feeling that you made a difference.

Forensics

Constables can specialise in crime scene examination as a Scene of Crime Officer or in forensic imaging as a Police Photographer. These officers would work alongside other non-constabulary forensic specialists such as Fingerprint Officers, Document Examiners, Armourers, and Electronic Crime Analysts.

Prosecutions

There are two sides to every story. A police prosecutor fronts police’s side in relation to criminal and traffic prosecutions. The role requires you to conduct legal research,  present evidence at court and prepare written submissions to strengthen the prosecution's case. You may apply for this role from outside police if you already have an LLB and a current practicing certificate (you'll need 2+ years experience), or you can apply once you hold the office of constable. You'll need exceptional judgement, strong communication skills, and be quick on the uptake.