Photo: RNZI/ Mary Baines
Cook Islands Police is short by about 40 staff and low remuneration rates are making it difficult to drum up new recruits.
The starting salary is set at the minimum wage of NZ$9.50 an hour.
Prime Minister Mark Brown told Cook Islands News last week a supplementary budget - to top up the existing NZ$328 million 2024/25 budget - will go towards "critical priorities" including "police recruitment and resourcing".
"While specific allocations are still being finalised, I can confirm that strengthening our public safety infrastructure remains a priority," he told the paper.
Prime Minister, Mark Brown Photo: RNZ Pacific/ Lydia Lewis
Police spokesperson Trevor Pitt said staff are frequently being reassigned to cover shortages which had been plaguing the police for years.
"We're in need of somewhere in the vicinity of between 30 and 40 staff and that was right across the board of all the divisions of the police including non-sworn staff as well as the sworn police."
The police shortage had not affected crime statistics which remained mostly unchanged, Pitt said.
"It's been difficult for the police for a number of reasons - not just the salary level but because of the realities of the job market today, where a lot of our young people are leaving to work overseas either in New Zealand or Australia, which obviously pay a much higher minimum wage than we do here."
Pitt said because police is a ranked organisation and vacancies at the mid-level range were hard to fill.
He said they were specialised positions which could not be "replaced off the street".
Pitt said during the festive period community volunteers helped the police, especially monitoring traffic.
"It's difficult to recruit anybody from overseas because we can't bring them in. We can't pay any relocation costs, airfares or housing settlements. We're not in a position to be able to do that.
"We're either looking at former police officers who want to come back and advancing the ones that we have through the ranks to make way for the new recruitment intakes at the lower levels.
"Looking forward we are hoping to recruit at least 20 personnel to cover frontline policing shortages."
Pitt said the maritime division, which oversees police ship, Te Kukupa II, is at a critical staffing level.
"That area in particular requires a minimum number of seamen to man the patrol boat in international waters."
Brown, who holds the police portfolio, acknowledged to Cook Islands News the challenges around recruitment and retention due to salary constraints.
"Any potential adjustments to salary scales will need to be balanced within the broader priorities of the supplementary budget, which will be tabled next month," he said.
