Skip to main content
Browse the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWYZ
Graphic: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966.

Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

POLICE

Contents

Related Images


Police Organisations

The New Zealand Police Association, formed in 1936, speaks for individual constables and non-commissioned members of the Police. Above non-commissioned rank staff interests are represented by the Police Officers' Guild. The movement began in Auckland, the first attempt being made in 1913 to form the association. The effort broke down, however, in the face of opposition from the Minister of Justice. Provision was made for non-commissioned members to join the Public Service Association, but this proved unsuccessful. Police members were thus left without any effective organisation until 1935, when the Government acceded to a proposal to form a police association. Present membership is about 2,500. Each of the 15 police districts annually elects a district committee, sending a delegate to an annual conference in Wellington. The general secretary of the organisation is the only paid officer, and is not a member of the Police.

The New Zealand Police Officers' Guild was set up in 1955, its secretary and executive being located in Wellington. Its objects are to provide a channel of direct approach to the Commissioner, or to the Minister, if need be, on matters affecting the Police in general and commissioned officers in particular; to provide harmony among commissioned officers; and to assist the Commissioner in his task of controlling the Police in its service to, and in the interests of, the Government and public.

The Commissioner from time to time consults the guild and outlines administrative changes he may have in mind.