Police work in New Zealand

Lockstep

I came across an article when I was younger about how Irish gardai were being headhunted by the Kiwi police, lower pay but better standard of living etc. I was fairly impressed with the article.
Always had an interest in heading over to apply and I'm halfway through my undergrad at the moment. Looking into options at the moment.

Two real options for getting into the cops over there;
-Apply to the Gardai, get two years experience and go direct entry (easy enough to switch over from immigration it seems)
-Get permanent residence, then apply. They seem quite keen on foreign applicants, with a special section on the site for them.

I'd probably be doing Law Masters (human rights law) after my undergrad, although I wouldn't intend becoming a practicing lawyer.

Problem with the first route is that Gardai will be swamped with applicants due to the recession etc. So I'd say the second route might be more appropriate as I don't want to be too old when I apply.


Anyone here have any experience with the Kiwi police? Any information appreciated.

myhorse

They did an international recruitment drive in 02 and 05 (google tells me)I know the Aussie force certainly had/ do have a program with the UK police forces (and army, navy, RAF)whereby you can transfer quickly and also get citizenship much quicker (half the time for Aus). Not sure about such a procedure in place for the gardai.

if you find anything more let us know, would be interesting

(dont worry about the recession causing the gardai having a huge no of applicants, they always did)

Zambia

Do you want to be a cop or do you want to live in NZ ?

What would be your first choice.

Lockstep

Both really, I was interested by the description of the NZ police the article gave and I've been through their website a lot.

Other police work I would be interested but really just to transfer into the NZPD if possible.

Mrs OBumble

If you want to work as a cop mainly in NZ, then I'd suggest training there: the cultural mix in NZ is very different to Ireland, and the stuff you'd be exposed to during training would stand you in good stead for living in NZ long term.

That said, what category would you hope to get NZ residence under, if it's not occupational as a cop?

It fascinates me that the two countries are the same size, have similar policies in oh-so-many-things, but don't regard each other as a good international comparison as far as I can see.

Lockstep

Well, you can't use cop as an entry yoke, I'm currently doing a BA in history and legal science, probably do a postgrad LLM in International Human RIghts law.
Problem being, I have no interest in doing the FE1s and becoming a lawyer so I can't claim lawyer as a profession.

I guess I could use my masters towards the University Lecturer requirements (qualification needed; masters or PHD), although I'd be 5points short for the 100points needed.


Does anyone have a better suggestion?

Zambia

kickoutthejams wrote: »

Well, you can't use cop as an entry yoke, I'm currently doing a BA in history and legal science, probably do a postgrad LLM in International Human RIghts law.
Problem being, I have no interest in doing the FE1s and becoming a lawyer so I can't claim lawyer as a profession.

I guess I could use my masters towards the University Lecturer requirements (qualification needed; masters or PHD), although I'd be 5points short for the 100points needed.


Does anyone have a better suggestion?

Yes Try and hit this from two angles 1 become a cop, 2 get to NZ hopefully they will meet in the middle

1: Apply for the Met in London(Be aware you can only apply for one mainland force the PSNI is exempt), and the PSNI , and the Gardai.

2:Consult a migration lawyer re your options at migrating to NZ

See which is the more likly of the two