Police Perceptions of Maori - Rethinking Crime and Punishment

Executive summary
Introduction
Within New Zealand, there is a lack of empirical research on police attitudes and
perceptions of Maori or other minority or ethnic groups. However, overseas research
frequently points to negative attitudes, discriminatory behaviour and racist abuse within
the police towards ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples. This research is designed
to examine police views about their behaviour and attitudes toward Maori, to look at
factors associated with different attitudes among police officers and to assess likely
responses to proposed changes for building responsiveness to Maori planned as part of
Policing 2000.
Method
The sample was limited to those ranked as constables, senior constables, sergeants or
senior sergeants, detectives, detective sergeants and detective senior sergeants who
were most likely to have day to day contact with members of the public. Booster
samples of women and those in the more senior ranks were included to allow for
comparisons on these variables.
Questionnaires were sent out with an accompanying letter and a reply paid envelope
with a return address. The reply envelopes were numbered to enable researchers to
identify which respondents returned their questionnaires. As replies came in, the
envelopes were separated from the questionnaires so that numbers could not be linked
to replies. This procedure was adopted to ensure the confidentiality of the responses
while enabling researchers to know who should be rung to follow up non-replies.
Responses
Of the original 1066 police officers sent questionnaires, 81 were on leave without pay,
had left the Police or were no longer able to be located. A total of 737 valid replies
were received before the final cut off date which was 12 January 1998. This represents
75% of the 979 potentially available. It is the responses of this sample which are
described in this report.
A number of respondents commented that they had found the questionnaire interesting
and thought provoking. Others were pleased to take part in the survey because they
felt that there were problems that needed to be addressed. On the other hand, 8%
refused to participate and other people expressed reluctance about returning their
questionnaires. Reasons for not responding were being too busy, a fear of being
identified or a concern that the questionnaire was biased.
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