The police are calling for people from all ethnic backgrounds to join their workforce at a launch of their refreshed ethnic and Pasifika strategies.
Dozens of community leaders, as well as police officers from a range of ethnic backgrounds attended the launch at the Manukau Police Station on Thursday.
Police commissioner Andrew Coster said the change was to reflect the needs of the community.
"We know what a diverse country that New Zealand is, with more than 200 ethnicities and (over) 170 different languages spoken," he said.
"This super diversity is why it's so important for our communities to feel heard and understood, and that we enable our staff on the frontline and many different roles to provide an effective response to communities and the different issues that they face."
Pacific team at the launch of police updated ethnic and Pasifika strategies. Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen
The strategies themselves were not new, with the ethnic one "Working Together with Ethnic Communities" first introduced in 2005 and updated in 2010 and 2016 subsequently, and the Pasifika version "O Le Taeao Fou - Dawn of a New Day" first introduced in 2018.
The police define "ethnic" communities as anyone who identifies their ethnicity as Asian, African, Continental, European, Latin American and Middle Eastern.
"This includes new and temporary migrants, refugees, international students, asylum-seekers, tourists, long-term settlers and those born in Aotearoa," the ethnic strategy document said.
According to the document, ethnic communities make up about 20 percent of the total population in New Zealand, and it is projected that New Zealand's combined MELAA (Middle Eastern, Latin American and Africa) and Asian communities will increase to 29 percent.
Ethnic team at the launch of police updated ethnic and Pasifika strategies. Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen
National partnerships manager for ethnic communities Rakesh Naidoo said ethnic communities were one of the highest migration groups and 76 percent of the country's ethnic communities were born overseas.
"It means there's a real need for us to make sure that we are able to educate them, work with them, build trust and confidence," he said.
"Otherwise, they sometimes carry with them their own perceptions based on the experiences of police in their home country."
The updated ethnic strategy has identified focus areas including increasing ethnic representation at all levels of the police workforce, building police's cultural understanding and capability, improving data collection and sharing, and working with community providers.
Sergeant Sanalio Kaihau from the Manukau station said it was awesome to see communities coming together. Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen
The Pasifika strategy shared similar priorities including increasing Pasifika representation with police, enhancing processes and systems that collect data, working with the community.
Coster also pointed out the importance of working collaboratively across different cultures.
"One of the things that we've done in this refresh is create alignment across our three strategies, our Māori, Pasifika and ethnic strategies, so that we can get good implementation across the organisation," he said.
Superintendent Fata Willi Fanene, the police's Pacific national partnerships manager, said the police had a plan of rolling the strategy out.
"We believe that the plan we have ... will have a positive effect on how the strategy is going to be implemented," he said.
Sergeant Sanalio Kaihau said it was awesome to see communities coming together.
"I think what I'd like to see is us working together with the ethnic communities, Pacific and ethnic working together to keep our community safe."
District ethnic liaison coordinators Kevin Deng and Justin Zeng. Photo: RNZ / Liu Chen
District ethnic liaison coordinator at Counties Manukau District Justin Zeng said the ethnic strategy update was a good move.
"It's very significant for the ethnic community because of the ever-changing demographic of the ethnic community in New Zealand," he said. "The refreshing of the ethnic strategy is tailor-made for our ethnic community in terms of our police responsiveness."
Coster said changes were not going to happen overnight.
"What you're seeing here is gradual growth, and this organisation's capability to respond appropriately to the communities we serve, and something that is built gradually is very strong and sustainable, and that's where I believe we are today."
Coster also said the police were working very hard to attract staff members from different communities and encouraged people to join them.