Police Perceptions of Maori - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

More documents

Recommendations

Info

For many others, issues of equity and merit regardless of ethnicity were seen as more important than equal representation in relation to the recruitment and promotion of Maori: Any recruitment or promotion should be on the merit and qualifications alone of that person, not some token sign just because they are Maori, Samoan, Asian, or any other race or colour. The police as an occupation and as an agency of state I believe must be a level playing field for all. To emphasise, and try to resolve political social evils through the organisation is wrong. This is supposed to be a merit based structure. Let the politicians address the real problems. I do not believe that we should lower our recruitment standards merely to encourage more Maori into the police. If we do, all this does is lower the standard of the police. Maori culture and protocol should always be nurtured and promoted but I do not feel any special consideration or treatment should be given to a Maori police officer because s/he is Maori. It is the same for everyone, and if an officer puts the effort into improving themselves by sitting exams etc, then whichever race they should be gives the same chance and attention as a Maori officer. It should be the best person for the job. Police must be careful to avoid reverse racism in dealing with Maori. You cannot promote a person to a higher rank on the grounds that they are of a different race. Other comments questioned the capacity of Maori officers to perform police duties adequately, to have attitudes consistent with becoming a member the police, and the need for a Maori presence in the service: Maori seem to have greater difficulty with police entrance exams. Maori police staff do not as a general rule perform at the same level as other European staff. Their values are different and reflect a need for supervisors and managers having to give Maoris and other Polynesian staff a disproportionate amount of their time. Also, will they cope with the technology? Is it fair on European staff to have university promotion papers which others will not aspire to but still be promoted to maintain a ‘partnership’with Maori? Maori perception of the police must change before more Maori recruits can be found. The function of the police is to deal with offenders and victims; not to have a station full of different coloured policemen to make a social worker smile. About a quarter of respondents disagreed with recognising Maori as a partner of the Crown and with ensuring that Maori had an input into policy decisions. And about a 26
third disagreed with emphasising police commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi. One comment explaining this latter response is quoted below: I have indicated that the Treaty claims should be settled however I don’t see a need for police to be committed to the Treaty. The Treaty is irrelevant to everyday policing. The proposal that police should provide translation into the Maori language when requested drew the most disagreement; 40% of respondents disagreed with this. The following quote exemplifies this view: I have yet to encounter a Maori person who doesn’t speak English. However, the majority of Asians and Samoans have a very limited understanding of the English language. A number of responses expressed positive attitudes towards changing policy within the police and some suggested ways of achieving of this: I recently attended a 3 day ‘cultural awareness course’presented by Maori. It was of a very high standard and very informative. It was somewhat of a ‘jolt’ in opening my eyes - not that I have ever felt ‘racist’ but have not really considered the Maori point of view as presented on the course. All police should attend such a course. There are stereotypical attitudes within police ‘younger staff’ but this flows from anglo upbringing. The attitudes are built on ignorance not hatred. Lack of contact is the biggest factor. Personal experience could change opinions. The diversity of responses is clear. There was general agreement about some aspects of the proposed policy and strategy, in particular, greater contact with Maori groups and agencies, more positive perceptions and improved understanding of Maori culture and protocol. On the other hand, there is likely to be considerable resistance to attempts to increase recruitment and promotion of Maori and to increase the profile of Maori and Treaty issues at the policy level. This points to the need for developing a framework for increasing these aspects of Maori involvement in policing in ways that are seen as fair and equitable to all officers. There is, however, a minority of officers who will oppose the policy proposals as a whole. Differences in the views of Maori and NZ European police officers Comparisons were made on all the questions between those officers who identified as New Zealand Maori or New Zealand European and New Zealand Maori (Maori descent, N= 91) and officers who identified as New Zealand European (N= 550) 20 . In making these comparisons, those who recorded themselves as belonging to any other 20 The reason for amalgamating those identifying as New Zealand Maori with those identifying as New Zealand Maori and New Zealand European was that, on the basis of the AMPAS score and other responses it was apparent that they were not significantly different from one another although they were significantly different from those identifying themselves as solely of New Zealand European descent. 27
Page 1 and 2: Police Perceptions of Maori A Repor
Page 3 and 4: Contents List of Tables iv Executiv
Page 5 and 6: Executive summary Introduction With
Page 7 and 8: emphasising the importance of settl
Page 9 and 10: Introduction In New Zealand, survey
Page 11 and 12: Method Questionnaire design In addi
Page 13 and 14: General questions on policy and str
Page 15 and 16: And, indeed, a number of people did
Page 17 and 18: Results Description of sample Women
Page 19 and 20: Police attitudes and behaviour in g
Page 21 and 22: The above respondent appears to be
Page 23 and 24: 'no responses' were also made by 12
Page 25 and 26: differences between the responses f
Page 27 and 28: for Maori for non Maori Same Know %
Page 29 and 30: (factors) in a set of data, was car
Page 31 and 32: I believe Maori are already getting
Page 33: Understand Maori culture and protoc
Page 37 and 38: Table 15 In general, are the police
Page 39 and 40: Dealing with one's own ethnic group
Page 41 and 42: Summary and discussion The seventy
Page 43 and 44: attitudes to Maori political aspira
Page 45 and 46: of the research may contribute to t
Page 47: Appendix 39

Police Perceptions of Maori - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?